A Mega Meet Yourself

By Gerald M. Gay, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson

Oct. 8--Tucson Meet Yourself is bulking up in its 36th year.

The free festival, happening this weekend, has a slew of new features in store and now stretches from the west end of El Presidio Park to the east end of Jacome Plaza, adjacent to the Joel D. Valdez Main Library.

"This will be the biggest footprint we've ever made," coordinator Mia Hansen said. "We've really exploded."

Tucson Meet Yourself already was popular. The event brought an estimated 70,000 people downtown in 2008.

Part of the reason for the new attractions, Hansen said, is that the city is on a short list to host the National Folk Festival, an event that would bring in major folk artists and thousands of visitors in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Coordinators from the National Council for the Traditional Arts already have met with the mayor and walked downtown to examine its viability.

"There is an increased level of excitement about Tucson Meet Yourself this year," Hansen said. "Our participants know we are being looked at right now."

Here are five new things to expect from this year's TMY:

--New performers -- More than 100 cultural acts are scheduled to perform on six stages. At least 13 of those acts will be new to Tucson Meet Yourself audiences.

Among the artists: Bollywood, Puerto Rican and Finnish dancers, a Kenyan drum circle and Zambuca Middle Eastern musicians.

"There are new communities growing in Tucson -- communities that in the past have been less apt to be out there," Hansen said. "We are thrilled they are participating."

--New food options -- Ghanaian, Kurdish, Persian, Ahiskan and Trinidad-Tobogan cuisine will all be available this year, in addition to TMY staple foods such as spanakopita, paella, fried bananas and fry bread.

--New collaborations -- Tucson Meet Yourself has taken on several new partners to "make sure everybody wins," Hansen said, "and to let people know it is a great weekend to come downtown."

Get Moving Tucson, a 10-mile and 5K running race and noncompetitive family fitness walk, will start and finish at the festival on Sunday morning.

And from Portland, Ore., the MarchFourth Marching Band -- recruited to perform as part of Hotel Congress' 90th birthday bash -- will play at Tucson Meet Yourself's Courthouse Stage on Friday night, before leading a parade to the hotel.

--New fundraiser -- TMY will hold a fundraiser at 8 p.m. Friday at the Fox Tucson Theatre celebrating "Cultural Cocktails From Around the World." Libations from Brazil, Costa Rica, Peru, England, Greece, Singapore, the Bahamas and France will be available, and $35 gets you eight tastings, a full cocktail of your choice and a commemorative glass. Sambalanço, Trim the Velvet, Jim Griffith and Sticks-n-fingers will perform.

--New festival marketplace -- For the first time, the event will host a marketplace at Jacome Plaza.

"It is not going to be a Fourth Avenue Street Fair sort of thing," Hansen said. "It is only people from the community who are representing ethnic culture."