Anatolian Festival

The 2011 Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival is this weekend at the OC Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa!

The Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival is a cultural and historical event that includes exhibitions, food, art craft, performances, dances and live music activities. More than 40,000 people from United States and around the world attend the four-day event each year.

Visitors enter the festival area through the “Civilizations Path”, which consists of 14 gates each representing different civilizations like Hittite, Troy, Urartu, Frig, Lydia, Ionia, Kingdom of Commagane, Persians, Byzantium, Roman Empire, Great Seljuk Empire, Ottoman Empire, and Republic of Turkiye. Anatolia has been a cradle for all these and many other civilizations throughout the history. At each gate, actors wearing authentic costumes of each civilization welcome and greet all visitors.

Three dimensional giant-sized replicas of five different cities of Anatolia (Istanbul, Konya, Antalya, Mardin and Van) and the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul are assembled with panoramic backgrounds. Artisans traveling all the way from Turkey display and demonstrate many traditional handicrafts like hand- woven carpets, the arts of water marbling, calligraphy, stone-carving and filigree during the four-day festival.