Canadian Cultural Representatives in Flag Ceremony, 2009-10
Azerbaijani Cultural Representative, 2015
Bulgarian Cultural Representatives, 2015
Large Crowd gathers to watch the Assyrian Performance group close out the Festival, 2010
The Festival of Cultures celebrates its 25th anniversary, as well as the 25th anniversary of the tearing down of the Berlin Wall during the Flag Ceremony, 2015
Cultural participation and attendance have both more than doubled over the first 16 years of the Festival of Cultures, and will continue to grow over the next 10 years.
The 2006 Festival, themed “One Village, Many Cultures," welcomes 31 participating cultures (including the new Colombian culture) and 25,000 visitors. From 2007 through 2014 the festival adds the following Cultures: Puerto Rican, Hungarian, Slovakian, Tibetan, Canadian, German, Italian, Iranian, Czech Republic, Laotian, Azerbaijani and Iraqi.
In 2008, the Festival is featured on WGN-TV's morning news the day before opening, leading to an increase in attendance. Those in attendance could enjoy new International Games, including Japanese Archery, Ssireum (Korean Wrestling) and Rugby. The Festival sees its largest crowds in 2009 and 2010 with 35,000 visitors each year. Always looking to make improvements and changes to the Festival, the Festival Committee, changes the layout of the grounds in 2010 and in 2012 adds a new attraction, Schaefer's International Beer Tasting.
In 2015, the 25th Annual Skokie Festival of Cultures at Oakton Park. After a quarter of a century celebrating Skokie’s diversity, the event has hosted more than 450,000 attendees, as well as cultural entertainers and booths representing more than 90 different cultures.
