Lebanese Festival

Last weekend the event to go to was Alefest, which apparently drew some very large crowds (from what i could see driving by on Patterson). Yet, at $20 cover, $30 day of show, just to drink a bunch of craft brews? Out of my budget. I can do my own beer tasting at home, with a bit of help from Arrow Wine or the excellent Belmont Party Supply.

Instead this past weekend I went to the Lebanese Festival at Riverscape, which wasn't rained-out this year. The popular attractins here are the food (and the DDN did a nice write-up on this aspect):
..and the entertainment, which involved folkloric danceing with some audience participation.
In a way this seems like a parish festival for a local Lebanese church, but held more as an event open to the general public. One can hope for some of the other ethnic groups to hold festivals down here. I know the Latinos have an event coming up here. What would be really interesting is if the local Indian community would hold an event. I think there was a plan to do this a year or two ago, but it fell through and the event was cancelled.

The next big ethnic event for Dayton is the popular Greek Festival, over at the Orhodox Church in Grafton Hill. This is a very popular festival, and there will be a shuttle bus from a downtown parking lot.

For a tour of the Lebanese festival click here.