The second annual One Tamarac Multi-Cultural Festival was held this past Saturday at the Tamarac Sports Complex here in South Florida. This year’s event ran from 5-8pm and featured performances by the Grammy award-winning reggae band Inner Circle (creators of the song “Bad Boys”, the theme from the TV show ‘Cops’), Latin band Fondo Blanco, Aloha Islanders and more. There were also plenty of food trucks, a children’s fun zone, cultural exhibits and a fireworks grand finale (which I missed). Oh, and it was free to attend.
Where or what the heck is Tamarac, you ask? Tamarac covers a 12-square mile area in western Broward County and is home to more than 63,000 residents and approximately 2,000 businesses. From its inception back in 1963 when real estate developer (and former owner of the Seattle Seahawks) Ken Behring bought up most of the land to create an active adult community of two-bedroom homes, Tamarac has evolved. Between the 2000 and 2016 census, the average age dropped from 67 to 48. The number of whites decreased during that time (82 percent to 65 percent), while the number of Hispanics has increased (from 15 percent to 28 percent of the city’s population) and African-Americans rose from 11 percent to 28 percent.
The One Tamarac Multi-Cultural Festival is a showcase of this growing city’s newfound diversity. I happened to stop by to test out my new Pentax K-1 and a few good lenses. Enjoy the photographs…
Fondo Blanco
I arrived about 5:30pm and Fondo Blanco, a popular Miami Latin band, was already into their set…
The diversity of the local community was pretty evident from the start…
Aloha Islanders Hawaiian Entertainment
Aloha Islanders Hawaiian Entertainment is South Florida’s Premier Polynesian dance company. Their Polynesian show is an action packed non-stop revue of dances from Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa and New Zealand.
What’s a Hawaiian show without a fire dancer?
Crowd was into it…
Stuff to eat, stuff to drink and plenty of stuff for kids of all ages…
Drake School of Irish Dance
The Drake School of Irish Dance, one of the most prestigious Irish dance schools in the South, was founded in 1990 in Atlanta, Georgia by Dublin native Karl Drake. They have locations in Coral Springs and Fort Lauderdale…
Amalfi’s Dance Studio
Located in nearby Margate, Amalfi’s Dance Studio Inc. was created as a professional training school specializing primarily in Colombian Folklore, but also teaches Salsa Caleña, Ballet and Latin American Folklore…
Inner Circle
Inner Circle, Jamaican reggae band formed in Kingston in 1968 and event headliners, did not disappoint. And the crowd? Yeah, they were diggin’ it…
After giving my Pentax K-1 a pretty good run (dang thing is heavy!), it was time to head back home and see what kind of images this camera is capable of. Let’s just say I was quite pleased. As for the One Tamarac Multi-Cultural Festival, I was also quite pleased. And I plan to be back next year. Follow the City of Tamarac on Facebook for details. See you there…
***Check out the FULL IMAGE GALLERY from the One Tamarac Multi-Cultural Festival on my SmugMug site. All images are also available for purchase (prints, wall art, desk art, phone cases, etc)***
