A parade of cultures, a global village, and a crowd made up of over 150,000 patrons gathered at the Belvedere in downtown Louisville during this year’s Labor Day weekend. All four days of excitement running from Aug. 29th through Monday Sept. 1st is a tradition worth experiencing with friends, family, and people from all over the world. In all of its 23 years of operating,
WorldFest has been a free venue catering to all ages. An area, Kids Zone, is just that, a place children play inside bouncy play sets, create things from arts and crafts, as well as play with other children.
If you love eating international food WorldFest is filled with vendors grilling, frying, dicing, and spicing your favorite selections. The people line up around the block to taste their favorite grilled Chicken on the stick from Thai Thai Chicken On A Stick, Acai bowls from Acai-Ville Cafe, Eden and Kissi Afro Caribbean Restaurant, Kizito, as well as other food vendors.
Laquan Walton, one of the owners of Acai-Village Cafe says their grand opening in Louisville at 329 West Muhammad Ali in the Norton Healthcare Sports and Learning Center is going to bring nutrition to the city of Louisville. Walton, “We specialize in Acai bowls. We specialize in smoothies and, also cold press juices.” Walton continues saying, “The Acai bowl. . .it’s a berry. It comes from overseas. It doesn’t grow over here at all.” Walton also says, “So, that’s what makes this thing so special. It has more antioxidants in the berry than any berry on the earth.” Walton continues saying, “It’s a special berry. So, we get it. . . like a sherbert texture. . . organic. No additives. Premium source of. . . and we’ve been rated best in the region before our cafe even opened.” Walton also says, “So, it’s really, good. It’s really, really, good.”
Acai is a berry that grows overseas Laquan uses in his Acai bowls filled with organic, natural, gluten free, nice sherbert texture, with granola and fruit topped with a variety of selections such as almond butter, creamy peanut butter, pumpkin butter, and Nutella butter. Acai-Ville Cafe is opened Monday through Saturday from 8 am til 8 pm. Acai-Village Cafe information can be found on Facebook as well as Instagram.
Eden and Kissi, is a family owned and operated Afro Caribbean restaurant. David, “We’ve been here for almost 11 years now. So that’s how long Eden and Kissi has been opened.” David also says, “We’ve got Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok.” David says his family has been selling their ox tails, carry goat, carry chicken, and smoked lamb at WorldFest for 11 years. Eden and Kissi restaurant location is in Louisville, Kentucky on 3912 Bardstown Rd.
Elizabeth Kizito, owner of Kizito, is known for her large basket filled with enormous cookies that sit on top of her head. Elizabeth, from Uganda, has been in business for 50 years. When asked how long she’s been doing business at WorldFest her enthusiasm was very passionate. Kizito, “I got started 20 years ago, I’ve been here.” Kizito talked of her travels back to Uganda. Kizito continued saying, “I go once a year to visit my family and buy more things.” Kizito says besides selling cookies she also sells imported crafts from Uganda. Kizito’s store is located at 1398 Bardstown Rd in Louisville, Kentucky. Elizabeth enjoys selling her items across the city of Louisville and at WorldFest every year.
Monet McDowell began her Sea Moss journey in 2018 and has been sharing her Sea Moss through St Lucian Sea Moss for the last three years at WorldFest. Monet Moss’s Sea Moss is sold through six Rainbow Blossom stores in Louisville. McDowell says she’s a traveling vendor selling her Sea Moss at different venues. McDowell, “I am the owner of the company. This company started in 2018. And I started with the transition of my own lifestyle.” McDowell continued saying, “So, I transitioned my health to live a better and healthier lifestyle.” McDowell continued, “So, what I started doing was. . . So, I started studying different herbalists and then I started to research like what does this do for the body. I want something that’s. . . I can just take one thing, and it does multiple things, right. So, I came across sea moss, and I started consuming it.” McDowell also says, “One of the things, well, two of the things I noticed first was energy and the mucus break up. And my skin started clearing up.” McDowell continues, “So, I said I got to tell people about this.” McDowell says, “So, twenty nineteen when Covid happened, I started making care packets for people, and I started delivering care packets to people, and the rest is history.” McDowell continues, “So, now we’re here. We’re in all the Rainbow Blossoms in Louisville, Kentucky and in New Albany, Indiana. And so, we are helping the community to become healthier with their living situation and to live a healthier lifestyle.” McDowell continued saying, “Every day of the WorldFest well sell out.” McDowell also says, “We have a website www.seamoss.cortez.com. You can order online. If you’re in Louisville, you can go to any Rainbow Blossom location. We’re also. . . We do different events.”
Sharing the spotlight with International Food vendors were the Native Crafts a family-owned business specializing in traditions, clothing, music, and over twenty years of operations according to family members Ariana and Karen. Karen “So, our business name and it’s a family business. We call. . . it is Native Crafts. We’ve been doing this business as long as I can remember. . .For more than twenty years we’ve been doing this festival for more than 20 years. And we’re happy to share our culture, traditions, jewelry, music, clothing with the community, just kind of share and create cross cultural ties with the community, and we love doing this every year.” Ariana, “So, we’re the daughters of the owner. This is a . . . This is a family business. We’ve been doing this since we were babies. We’re really, grateful, that we’ve been able to foster a community here in Louisville. And it’s been really, great, learning how a small business works and being able to support our family has been, really, important. “
Eight lucky Forests is a Korean owned business. Business owner Michelle says, “I’m based in Maryland. Then I traveled here to Louisville, Kentucky for the Worldfest.” Michelle continued saying, “I started my business in 2023.” Michelle also says, “I do travel. I do a lot of pop-ups. And I also have online store at 8luckyfarorests.com. Michelle continued saying, “Eight Lucky Forests, it’s a gift store. We focus on. . really really cute. . .so it could be an arrange of items bag accessories. . .and they’re all cute. As well as authentic Korean skin products.” She specializes in Korean skin care products, but also sells bags, accessories, household products, pop-up shop, and e-commerce. Eight Lucky Forests was established in 2023 and is a Korean owned business located in Maryland.
Gye Nyame Books and More co-owner, poet, and writer, Jacy “Prolific” Jones shared insight of her participation at WorldFest. Jones, “We set up at WorldFest every year since it began.” Jones says, “We have books like written on the African Diaspora. Then also, other African inspired things like necklaces, rings, purses, African fans, head wraps, and we do have black art in our store.” Jones continued saying, “We focus on children’s and conscious books, but we also have some local authors from Louisville, a couple from Cincinnati.” Jones also says, “We’re on Facebook and Instagram.”
Several vendors attending WorldFest are all about fashion design with Guelaquetza Designs being among them with import items from Mexico specializing in clothing, jewelry, and home decor. Owner of Guelaquetza Designs, Nancy Quero said she’s been a vendor at WorldFest since 2013. Quero, “We are located in the city of Wyoming in the state of Michigan.” Quero, “We specialize in handmade items from Mexico. We have jewelry, home decor, clothing for children, men, women.”
Be Lavish Boutique and Mad Styles owner Michelle Fields has excellent products waiting to be obtained by potential customers. Fields, “It’s a mixture of stuff people like. Plus size ladies like my plus size styles. Then the men like my hats. It’s a variety items that gets sold a lot.” Be Lavish Boutique and Mad Styles is an online business as well as a traveling business catering to various venues throughout the year targeting mostly males t35 and up who love wearing clothes, shoes, hats and socks.
DiDi Design and Alteration owned by Didi said it was her first time at WorldFest. Didi, “This is my first time.” Didi continued saying, “I been in business five years,” Didi mentioned her product focus. Didi also says, “African clothing, jewelry, alterations. Any kind of alterations.” Didi continued saying,”We do mostly cultural causes like birthdays, graduations, weddings.” DiDi Design and Alteration is in the city of Louisville at 4109 Bardstown Rd Ste 106 in the Buechel Station Shopping Center. Didi said her business is family-owned specializing in African clothing and other items. Celebrating this year’s WorldFest continues as it set out to do sharing and learning from various persons from various cultural communities.
