In ancient times, a trade network spanning 4,000 miles from China across India and the Middle East to Europe and Africa connected civilizations and changed the world.
The city will celebrate its own Silk Road with the cultural heritage district’s first marketplace festival — an event also meant to foster the modern-day exchange of global goods, ideas, religions, cultures and languages.
Highlighting the San Antonio’s diverse communities whose traditions span the regions historically connected by the Silk Road, the inaugural festival will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at 10401 Interstate 10 West.
The family-friendly festival will feature international cuisine, artisan vendors, cultural performances and children’s activities, and is sponsored by the City of San Antonio Economic Development Department, the Office of Historic Preservation and Culturingua.
Arman Mehrafza, whose father owns Silk Road Gallery, stands inside the store selling art and antiques in 2017. Credit: Bonnie Arbittier / San Antonio Report
The festival comes nearly a year since the area was designated a cultural heritage district, encompassing the neighborhoods and businesses spanning Wurzbach Road from Fredericksburg Road to Northwest Military Highway.
The neighborhood has for some time been known as a place to find a variety of Mediterranean, North African, Chinese, Japanese and Indian markets and restaurants.
The district is a destination within San Antonio with a lot to offer, said Culturingua Co-Executive Director Nadia Mavrakis.
“We wanted to host this festival to really highlight the cultural diversity of the Silk Road and to really show and attract the broader community into the Silk Road, and for them to see that the Silk Road has so many assets and so much cultural diversity in terms of the artists, the performing artists, visual artists and culinary diversity,” Mavrakis said.
But it’s also for the people who live and work in the district, she added, “for them to really feel a sense of belonging and pride and be able to showcase their culture and their traditions and their cuisine and performances, and to really show that this community is an integral part of the fabric that makes up the diversity of San Antonio.”
A worker rotates chicken tawook, or chicken skewers, during lunch service at Zaatar Lebanese Grill in San Antonio’s Silk Road Heritage District. Credit: Amber Esparza / San Antonio Report
At the festival, Mavrakis said she’s especially looking forward to the children’s activities, including one in which kids can interact with various aspects of the Silk Road to earn stamps on a “passport” and a special coin once all the stamps have been collected.
In addition to an artisan bazaar of handmade crafts, she said The Bike Zoo of Austin will bring two bicycles outfitted like the moths that produce silk, and several cultural dance groups — Filipino, Lebanese, Korean and Northern India among them — will perform during the event.
Austin’s Bike Zoo will be bringing moth bicycles, like this Atlas moth-themed one, to the Silk Road celebration. Credit: Courtesy / Austin Bike Zoo
International food vendors from countries like Libya and Syria will be serving up diverse Silk Road cuisines.
The festival highlights the district as a growing destination for cultural tourism, entrepreneurship and small-business growth, according to the city’s announcement about the festival.
“San Antonio’s cultural heritage districts are powerful drivers of economic opportunity and neighborhood vitality,” said Brenda Hicks-Sorensen, director of the City of San Antonio Economic Development Department. “The Silk Road District Festival brings visibility to the small businesses and entrepreneurs that make this corridor unique while celebrating the global traditions that enrich our city.”
Organized by Culturingua, the festival continues the organization’s work of strengthening cultural heritage and economic opportunity within the district.
For more information and event registration, visit the Silk Road SanAntonio site on eventbrite.com.