{"id":174637,"date":"2026-03-02T05:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/174637\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T05:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:06:14","slug":"jacksonvilles-world-of-nations-celebrates-global-cultures-with-29-countries-represented-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/174637\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville&#8217;s World of Nations celebrates global cultures with 29 countries represented"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This weekend, the <a href=\"https:\/\/events.jacksonville.gov\/special-events\/world-of-nations-celebration\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:World of Nations Celebration\u00a0;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">World of Nations Celebration\u00a0<\/a>took over Jacksonville\u2019s riverfront \u2014 bringing people from all across the city together for a global experience along Bay Street.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The two-day festival at Ford on Bay concentrated food, music, and culture from around the world all in one place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">From the sounds of live music to the smell of food cooking, the energy was felt the moment you stepped onto the riverfront. Traditional dances, authentic cuisine and handmade goods transformed downtown into an international showcase.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cI think it\u2019s amazing that the city of Jacksonville is very connected and multicultural, from Latinos to Arab descent, from any part of the world,\u201d Anderes Restrepo, who represented Colombia at the festival, said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This year, 29 countries were represented \u2014 each sharing a piece of their heritage with the community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Restrepo said the opportunity to highlight his culture was deeply personal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cIt means a lot, this country is giving me so many things, so many gifts, it&#8217;s given so many gifts to the world, and I really hope to be able to show the rest of the world what it means to us,\u201d Restrepo said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Organizers say the celebration is about more than entertainment \u2014 it\u2019s about connection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWe also just enjoy being able to put the cultures on display. They can come out. They can display the wonderful food, you smell the smells, and expose people to their culture. Where else\u00a0can you do that all in one place,\u201d Alex Alston, Executive Director of the Office of Sports &amp; Entertainment, said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Fittingly, 25 people from several countries <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/p\/182hXiNUhB\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:took the Oath of Allegiance;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">took the Oath of Allegiance<\/a> at the event, officially becoming United States citizens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This weekend, the World of Nations Celebration\u00a0took over Jacksonville\u2019s riverfront \u2014 bringing people from all across the city&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82745,82744,116,118,117,82746,82312],"class_list":["post-174637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-anderes-restrepo","tag-global-experience","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-traditional-dances","tag-world-of-nations-celebration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}