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About Us

The International Festival of Raleigh, presented by International Focus, Inc, is an annual celebration of dance, food, and music from around the globe. This event brings over 40 diverse ethnic groups together to share traditions and celebrate their unique differences, while allowing native North Carolinians to discover the world in Raleigh.

International Focus, Inc. is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization with the mission to encourage and preserve popular and traditional ethnic cultures, to foster and develop awareness of the broad scope of ethnic backgrounds of all persons, and to promote American citizenship and its ideals among people of all nationalities by cultural educational means.

The first International Festival of Raleigh was held in October of 1986 at the Raleigh Convention Center. It was originally a project of the Sister Cities Association of Raleigh. This year (2009) will mark the 24th annual Festival.

The International Festival has become a key component of the Triangle's cultural and artistic offerings. Activities and exhibits include the main stage with continuous entertainment from local and international dance groups, food booths with culinary offerings from around the world, cultural booths where visitors can learn about different cultures and their traditions, a world market, games from around the world, the Biergarten stage for music, the town square, and ethnic dance lessons and cultural demonstrations.

A Naturalization Ceremony became part of the Festival in 1988 with the help of the Woman's Club of Raleigh. The Ceremony continues to be the grand opening of the Festival each year. At the 2008 Festival almost 1,000 new Americans were naturalized.

Clodagh Lyons-Bastian

Executive Director

Al Cellini

Board of Directors

Resident of North Carolina for over 28 years. Worked for Siemens Energy, Inc. for 27 years, retired March 2008. Previous home town So. Philadelphia, PA. Lived and worked for General Electric for 16 years with some time spent in Iowa. Member of the International Festival for over 15 years and Board Member of the International Focus, Inc. group for two terms.

Derek Dickens

Board of Directors: Secretary

Stella Dreyer

Board of Directors: Treasurer

Ms. Stella C. Dreyer is the founder, President and CEO of Intersource & Associates, Inc, established in 1992, providing market development services to No. American manufacturers in Latin America, Mexico and the Caribbean. Currently, Intersource specializes in providing Interpreting and Accounting services. In 2006, Ms. Dreyer launched a new company Elegancia, a subsidiary of Intersource, a retail business providing gowns & gifts for religious events.
Ms. Dreyer was the first Executive Director of the North Carolina Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; is a registered interpreter for the Administrative Office of the Courts in Raleigh, interpreting for the Public Defender’s office in Raleigh and local attorneys and a volunteer interpreter for the Sheriff's Department in Raleigh.
She has served as a board member of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce; of the NC Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; and President of the Colombian American Association of the Triangle and is the current Treasurer of International Focus Inc.

Karen Edwards

Board of Directors: President
Festival Committee: Main Stage

Mrs. Edwards has been involved with the International Festival since its inception. She has been in charge of the Main Stage for twenty-one years and the Young People.s Matinee prior to that. Karen Edwards is owner and principal teacher of The Dancer.s Studio. She is Artistic Director of Concert Dancers of Raleigh, a youth ballet company beginning its 35th year. She is a regular reader for the Triangle Radio Reading Service and a judge for the Silver Arts Follies of the Senior Games. She was given the 2005 City of Raleigh Medal of Arts Award in recognition of her volunteer service and commitment to teaching.

Glenn Hunt

Festival Committee: Display and Sign Marketing

Glenn Hunt is a lifelong resident of North Carolina. Although he had to be coaxed and almost physically dragged to the first festival he attended in 1993, he has marked his calendar and eagerly anticipated it every year since. To anyone who will stand still long enough, Glenn can be heard telling them that in his opinion, .The International Festival is the best event of the year in Raleigh.. While he enjoys international travel, he continues to be amazed at the number and variety of cultures represented in the Triangle area. Glenn is excited to serve on the festival committee for 2009 and looks forward to an exciting festival.

Sherri Jameson

Festival Committee: Souvenirs

Nazi Kite

Festival Committee: International Bazaars

My name is Nazi Kite and I am the chair person for Bazaar booths. I have been involved with International Festival for the past 23 years. I have served on the International Focus BOD for several years in different roles including 3 years as the President of the Board. My husband, Gary and I live in Cary. I am originally from Iran and currently very active with the Persian activities in this area. My interests are volunteer activities, traveling, spending time with friends and reading.

Janice Mrkonjic

Board of Directors
Festival Committee: Program Ads

Janice Mrkonjic has broad professional experience including corporate sales, corporate training, career coaching, nonprofit board memberships and event planning. She holds a Master of Adult Education and has worked in the private and public sectors in Canada and the USA. Janice is President and Owner of Savvy Event Designs, LLC® in Raleigh NC. She is thrilled to be associated with International Focus, Inc. and looks forward to leveraging her skills, experience, and cultural heritage to their already successful events by serving on their board of directors and festival committee.

Tim Palo

Festival Committee: Cultural Exhibits

Tim was born in Finland but grew up in Waukegan, Ill., outside Chicago. Tim helped his parents, who were members of the local Finnish community, prepare and setup for the local International Festival held annually in Waukegan, Ill. Tim left home to join the Army and was discharged from the Army at Ft. Bragg, N.C. In 1988 Tim moved to Raleigh, N.C. where he joined the Triangle Finnish Association (TFA) in 1989 and started to become involved with the TFA in the Raleigh International Festival in 1990. Tim has been an active participant with the International Festival since with the TFA and during the last 5 years also with the International Focus. 2009 is the second year Tim has been on the Festival Committee in charge of the Cultural Booths. Tim is also in charge of the Festival.s load-in and load-out.

Konrad Reszka

Festival Committee: Website

Konrad has been attending the International Festival since its days in the original Raleigh Civic Center. One chance encounter with one of the organizers at a lemonade stand gave him the opportunity to take over the Festival's online operations. Konrad spends his days as a software engineer in RTP.

Shoshana Serxner

Festival Committee: Volunteers

Jonathan Serxner

Festival Committee: Sidewalk Cafes

Jonathan has been a participant in each International Festival since the first one in 1986. He started out as a member of the Dutch cultural club, DeWieken, helping set up and working in the Cultural Booth, World Bazaar and the Dutch Sidewalk Café. In 2003, Jonathan joined both the Board of Directors of International Focus and the International Festival Committee. For three years he served as Village Square section chair and then took over as the Sidewalk Café section chair of the Festival Committee. For three of his six years on the Board of Directors he served as the Secretary.

Bob Southerland