Summer festival spotlight: Worthington International Festival

NINA MOINI: Well, each week on Minnesota Now, we're learning about the summer festivals that are happening all over the state. And today, we're turning the spotlight to Worthington. The town's 30th annual International Festival gets underway tomorrow. And Jesse Nitzschke is chair of the group organizing the festival. He joins me now. Thanks for being here, Jesse.

JESSE NITZSCHKE: Thank you.

NINA MOINI: Wow, 30 years. Congratulations. Can you tell me a little bit about what's in store for that first event tomorrow evening?

JESSE NITZSCHKE: Yeah. So tomorrow is a little bit different than the traditional two days on the weekend of the festival. Thursday night is a smaller, intimate event. It's kind of like a slow start to everything. We actually brought in drummers this year, and we're going to have a short drumming period. So people coming off work can take some time to kind of slow down. And it's very interactive. They get to sit there with our group, who are a duo called Purpose Artisans. And they're actually occupational therapists by trade.

And so you get to slow down. And you just learn a little bit about drumming and then get some good bites. So we have some small samples that they can have and pay for a couple of dollars. And then we have our movie or documentary this year is about Malala and about women's education. And then there'll be a discussion after. So it's more of an intentional event than the big festival, the big bang festival. But it's a very nice, too. I really appreciate that event. That's something that I take on a lot when I started with the festival committee.

NINA MOINI: Sure. It seems like it's very intentional. And I understand that it's an outdoor festival, right, and that Friday and Saturday is moving this year, I read, because of some construction in the area. How is that going to change the experience?

JESSE NITZSCHKE: Well, I mean, yeah, it's kind of an interesting opportunity, actually, I would say, because Sailboard Beach is really a beautiful place. And the atmosphere I think is really cool because it's super open. With our heat, it'll hopefully be a little cooler with the air coming off the lake. And then, yeah, they have the Regatta Festival every year there at the same spot. So logistically, it's nice to match up with that a little bit in some ways. But I do think it has a lot of potential for a long-term home for us as well. I think the downtown area was also great. There's nothing against that, either. But it gives us a chance to see something different.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, kind of fun to switch it up over the course of 30 years, I'd imagine. And we heard some music earlier from one of the youth artists who are going to be featured. Can you tell me more about that youth artist showcase and why you all felt that that was important to include?

JESSE NITZSCHKE: Yeah. Actually, the interesting story about that is, the person who works on that is a colleague of mine here at the school. Her name is Lakeyta Swinea. And she has been involved with the festival pretty much her whole life. So she pretty much was the OG, the original youth artist. I know she went on stage with her dad back in the day. And he's been a big part of the festival as well and worked with the local union here.

And when we did an interview earlier in the year with him-- it was kind of a pet project I took on to interview for historical purposes in the festival-- he talked about singing with his daughter up there on the stage. And so I was like, it's kind of fitting that she helps with this. But we want to continue that. We want to have local talent. We want to promote our youth. And hopefully, they go far.

We have not just, I mean, obviously, on the stage, but we have some of our vendors, our food vendors. One of my students currently works a little bit, has worked with the committee or is interested in working with the committee. And also, his family owns the food trucks that's with the festival. And then we've had other students, too, that are involved with the food side of it and then the booth side of it coming back to Worthington or staying in Worthington. So, yeah, we really love to have our youth out there, especially for me and, of course, my colleague, Lakeyta, working at the high school.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, I mean, I'm sure there are just tons of stories over the years of generations of folks that have come to this festival. I'm assuming, though, that other people from outside of Worthington come as well. What other performances, what are some of the highlights and activities that people can look forward to if they're maybe wanting to visit the area for this?

JESSE NITZSCHKE: Oh, yeah, we have about everything. And we've had people from all over visiting. I talked to a man from Cuba last year, actually. And I went to Cuba over the winter myself. So it was kind of an interesting thing. I think he had just moved to the area, working at JBS here. But, yeah, we have people from all over that come, typically. And we hope that'll be quite a reach this year.

Our Friday night, I mean, we have Salsa del Soul as our headliner. They do Hispanic music of different varieties. It's definitely dance music. And that's why we picked Friday night because it's like, you get off work and you need to break out.

NINA MOINI: Let loose.

JESSE NITZSCHKE: And also with them, we have one of our youth performers, Los Vandettas, which they're a Mexican band. And they're really a lot of fun. I know the three boys that are in the band. They all are high schoolers. And, yeah, they like to have fun. So hopefully, it'll be a really good mix there for that night to get things kicked off.

NINA MOINI: Wonderful.

JESSE NITZSCHKE: And then Saturday, it's a long day. So we have plenty of different performances. I mean, I want to highlight we have some of our local groups, the Aztec Dancers, which is kind of a revival. So we talk about our history. There's been an Aztec group here in Worthington. And of course, COVID really shut down so many things. And we didn't know if they were going to come back. But this year is their first year back organizing a new group. So we have the local Mexican Aztec Dancers.

We have our Oromo groups. We have Anuak community, which is out of Austin, Minnesota. But they came last year, and they were brilliant. And they're youth, too. And that's the other thing that's great to highlight is they're mostly young men, too, from Austin, Minnesota, there. And then, of course, we have things like traditional Son de Cuerdas. It's a traditional Latin music. And then we have Native American, we have German singers coming, Concord Singers. So there's--

NINA MOINI: All right! Jesse, it sounds like it's going to be wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you for joining us and giving us that rundown. And best of luck with everything. Have a great time.

JESSE NITZSCHKE: Thank you. You too. Take care.

NINA MOINI: That's Jesse Nitzschke, is the chair of the committee that organizes Worthington's International Festival, which kicks off with a film screening tomorrow evening and runs Friday and Saturday at Sailboard Beach. We'll have a link to all the details and performers at mprnews.org.