The Art of Living Foundation, organizer of the semiannual World Culture Festival, says more than 450,000 people have registered for this weekend’s event on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
The three-day festival is scheduled to feature more than 17,000 diverse cultural artists, entertainers and speakers.
This is the fourth World Culture Festival to celebrate diversity and peace and is the culmination of 42 years of global service by Art of Living founder Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. One of the festival’s goals is to create a visible, public forum to celebrate our differences — as Gurudev calls it, our “One World Family.”
The lineup features over 50 performances including:
- A Chinese cultural performance with 1,000 singers, dancers and dragons;
- A Garba performance with 7,000 dancers that will encourage audience participation;
- A 50th anniversary tribute to Hip Hop with Kurtis Blow, SHA-Rock, Sequence Girls and DJ Kool and other legends alongside 100 breakdancers debuting choreography by King Charles and Kelli Forman;
- 700 Indian classical dancers with a live symphony;
- 100 Ukrainian dancers in a lively Hopak;
- 1,000 guitarists led by Grammy Award winner Micki Free;
- Performance of the official World Culture Festival theme song “Una Familia“; and
- Live reggae with Skip Marley, the grandson of legendary Bob Marley, culminating in the classic “One Love.”
Registration is free and open to all ages. Full Festival information can be found at artofliving.org.
(NOTE: In the case of a government shutdown and the National Mall becomes closed off to the public, including the Sunday portion of the World Culture Festival, organizers have announced a contingency plan to broadcast Sunday’s program and festivities from a private venue in Washington, DC. The in-person program will be closed to the public and all World Culture Festival attendees would be encouraged to tune in online here.)
