photo by: Elvyn Jones

Sara Ahmed lays out the pattern of a henna tattoo on the hand of 11-year-old Sophia Herrera, of Kansas City, Mo., at the Islamic Center of Lawrence's booth at Sunday's Festival of Cultures at South Park.

Mary Kirkendoll said her unnamed group of yoga providers and Indian crafters made a mistake with its booth at Sunday’s Festival of Cultures at South Park.

The booth’s location was fine, sitting in the shade along the pedestrian-packed northern sidewalk leading east to the bandstand from Massachusetts Street. The mistake was choosing to offer jewelry, wood carvings, scarves and other craft items at their tabletop booth.

“We should have brought food,” Kirkendoll said. “Today is all about the food.”

The purpose of the Lawrence Alliance’s festival is to share the rich cultural diversity that exists in Lawrence through crafts, food, music and live entertainment. Kirkendoll was right, however, that it was the food booths among the approximately 35 booths organizations set up at the festival that were the most popular.

Booths along a 50-foot stretch of sidewalk to the south of the bandstand offered such temptations as Middle Eastern kabobs, Mexican tamales, cold noodle dishes from Taiwan, Native American fry bread and wojapi, and Colombian empanadas. Many of the booths were of student groups from the University of Kansas or Haskell Indian Nations University, and among them, raising money for trips was common.

Elaina Bargas, a KU junior studying architectural engineering, said the KU chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers was raising money for trips to a regional SHPE conference in Denver and a national conference in Seattle. Unlike the tables of some other booths, topped with multiple dishes, the SHPE students were offering only one item — a rice pudding-like dish called arroz con leche.

“We all got together yesterday and made this,” Bargas said.

Sara Ahmed, of Lawrence, found a way to attract customers with a non-food item at the Islamic Center of Lawrence booth. She was busy tracing out on the hands and feet of customers the complex henna tattoo patterns her aunt taught her.

“South Asian women would do them for holidays and religious occasions,” she said. “Right now, we would do it for the Eid al-Adha. It makes me really happy to share my cultural experiences.”