The Andisheh Center will host the 15th Annual Iranian Festival this Saturday, Aug. 2 in the South Park Blocks, between Southwest College Street and Branford Price Millar Library, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The festival will be free of charge and open to all.
The festival will feature a diverse roster of events, activities and performances centering around an authentic sense of Persian culture and tradition. Opening remarks will be presented by Denny Doyle, mayor of Beaverton, and Charlie Hales, mayor of Portland.
“We have live music, we have a couple bands that will be performing and live dance performances,” said Nikki Meshkin, Andisheh board member. “We’re very lucky to have the 2014 young artist winner [Denna Good-Mojab], who will be singing a couple songs after the mayor’s speech.”
Meshkin said the festival will host a variety of booths displaying Persian food and deserts as well as activities for children and adults. An artists booth will showcase arts and crafts by Iranian artists.
Diversifying the lineup of events and engaging with younger audiences is an important focus of this year’s event.
“This year, for the first time, we want to get the youth of our community involved. We’re going to have a contest which is organized, as well as emceed, by our youth,” Meshkin said. “We’re calling it Iranians Got Talent.”
The talent show will be primarily overseen by the Iranian Student Association of Portland, a nonprofit group operating and founded through Portland State.
Shirin Zagar, the member of ISAP who is in charge of Iranians Got Talent, said the talent show will feature six to seven performers.
“The talents that we will have are singing, piano and singing and playing piano at the same time,” Zagar said. “One will be playing a traditional Iranian instrument.”
Performers include Savannah Neda, a musician and performer who plays the piano, flute, daf and tombak. Laila and Malaika Murphy, a mother-daughter duo, will perform individually in friendly competition against each other.
Laila Murphy is a musician and singer who has performed with The Oregon Symphony and appeared in performances of Les Miserables and Once on This Island. She said her daughter will be singing and rapping while accompanying herself on the piano.
“It is an American song, but she changed one phrase into Persian—for the fun of it.” Murphy said.
