Music, Dance, Food Highlight Dia de los Reyes Festival at CAC on Saturday

The Cultural Arts Council of Douglasville/Douglas County presents the fifth annual Dia de los Reyes Festival, Saturday, Jan, 5, from 3 until 5 p.m., at the Cultural Arts Center. Supported in part by Planet Chiropractic with the assistance from Spanish Honor Society students in Turner Middle and Lithia Springs High Schools, this family fiesta celebrates the Latino holiday with the Magi, music and much, much more.

Not only will the Three Kings – Melchor, Gaspar and Baltazar – be there, but there will be music and dancing to the mariachi music; traditional foods (like rosca cakes, grapes and tamales) and drinks like tamarindo and horchata will be served; and there will be hands-on activities for children and their families including piñatas and letter-writing to the Wise Men. In this charming Hispanic tradition, children write their wishes on letters, which are tied to helium-filled balloons and then released to carry theirs wishes into the sky. The Dia de los Reyes refreshments and decorations have been donated by many local restaurants and small businesses. 

As a result of this event and the Arts Council’s many exhibits and performances that explore different cultures, the Cultural Art Council was selected as one of seven arts agencies in the U.S., building a sense of community through international programming, and featured in Backyard Diplomacy: Prospects for International Engagement by Local Arts Agencies, a monograph published by Americans for the Arts in December 2011. The featured profiles, its publishers write, “demonstrate how local arts agencies, through the support of their communities and stakeholders, are acting as bridge builders of international connections to achieve their full potential as catalysts towards mutual understanding.”