Hi everyone! I hope you are well! We’ve been having some nice weather in Amherst, and to celebrate spring, Amherst’s City Streets festival was held this past Sunday. I’m going to talk about it in this week’s blog. If you have any questions, please email me at sgoldsmith24@amherst.edu.
What is City Streets?
City Streets is an annual festival that the College holds in the spring to celebrate the variety of cultures and heritages that are represented by students at Amherst. The green space where the festival is held is decorated with flags that reflect the home countries of every student, and people are able to take photos with their flags if they wish.
Attractions
The primary draw of City Streets is the food. There were several tents with foods from around the world that are served by local vendors. My favorites were the Middle Eastern food (hummus, pita chips, falafel), French food (crepes!), and Indian food (chana masala, chicken tikka masala, paratha). There was also ice cream, Nepalese food, New Orleans food, and Mexican food. Every station had vegan and gluten free options for people with dietary restrictions, and as a vegetarian, this means a lot.
City Streets also had live music. There were performances by student acapella groups – Amherst is known as the singing college for a reason! The Crocodile River Music group also performed, which was a wonderful addition to City Streets.
Lastly, there were some oversized games set up across the green space where the festival was held. These included a bean bag toss and a giant Connect Four.
Weather
As nice as the weather was the week leading up to City Streets, it rained the day before and the ground was very muddy. My friends and I took careful, slow steps the entire evening so we did not plunge our feet into puddles or mud. Although I didn’t enjoy it at the time, I now think fondly of the mud and how after the festival, we all washed our shoes in the sink together.
Thank you for reading! If you have any questions, please email me at sgoldsmith24@amherst.edu! I’d love to hear from you.