The PMAC was full of lively music, dance, food and diversity Sunday afternoon for the 2003 International Expo: A World View From LSU.
The event, sponsored by the Union Program Council, brought many international students, local families and interested sight-seers together to experience different cultural exhibits from around the world.
Rhonda Dunaway, Union assistant director for programs, said event planners expected 2,000 people to show up to the expo, but were delighted to see more than 2,000 people attended.
She said at the first expo in 1970, the international council was allowed to serve alcohol. Between 4,000 and 5,000 people showed up then.
“The numbers are down from that, but this is the biggest crowd in recent years,” Dunaway said.
Dunaway attributes some of this year’s crowd to e-mail invitations they sent out through the International Cultural Center.
Although not as many American students attend the expo yearly, she said one of their recent goals was to get more students to attend. Dunaway thinks more American students attended this year.
“A lot of people think it’s just for internationals, but it is for everyone,” she said.
One thing event planners used this year to draw more American students to the expo was International Week, sponsored by Student Government.
The University’s international student organizations set up and ran most of the exhibits, from more than 25 countries, and performers for the stage shows, Dunaway said.
This year’s exhibits featured crafts, artifacts, music, fashion, food and information about each country. Most exhibits had information sheets with facts about the country for people to take with them.
Teaway Zehyoue, president of the African Student Organization, said her organization has participated in the expo since it started and have always performed.
“The expo is the biggest event for the fall semester, so the African Student Organization starts finding dancers and planning for the fashion shows during the first week of school,” Zehyoue said.
“The African exhibit featured clothes from all different parts of the continent of Africa, but mostly from Nigeria and Ghana,” she said.
Since it represented the entire continent, Zehyoue said it was hard to find a balance of artifacts for the event.
Vikram Rao, president of the Indian student organization, said he has been participating in the expo for the past seven or eight years.
Rao said the Indian Student Organization is one of the largest student organizations on campus and had an elaborate exhibit of mostly handcrafted artifacts.
From a lobster carved out of cow horns to a bottle opener detailed with carvings from a small hammer, the Indian exhibit showed a plethora of different crafts.
Tammy Sam, chair of the Union Program Council International Committee, said there were no performers from America this year, but she hopes to find someone to represent the American culture next year.
The expo this year also included dance lessons from the various countries, Dunaway said. “People will just get up on stage and start dancing,” she said. “It’s been a lot of fun..”