Lebanese Festival 2010 in Downtown Rochester

The Lebanese Festival (LebFest) of 2010 was held in Downtown Rochester this year. The event was previously held in Birmingham, but since the former site was under construction Dr. Pierre Atallah was generous enough to offer the River Square Center in Rochester as the new destination. While attending we were able to eat some of the authentic Mediterranean food and enjoy some of the ethnic music and dance. We were told that over 12,000 people came this year and participated in the festival. We spoke with a PURe Dance Ensemble’s dancer, Jaad Nicholas, about the experience and he remarked that the crowd was very energetic and the atmosphere was excellent. PURe is an acronym for Project Universal Reflection. The company is made up of dancers of varied ages, expertise, and techniques. In addition, you see all bodies, shapes, shades, and cultures on stage together when PURe is performing. PURe’s mission is to reach out to the community through a mind, body, and spirit connection. By viewing one of their performances, the audience experiences healing because in some way they see themselves reflected on stage. PURe Dance Ensemble, an Ann Arbor based Dance Company directed by Gina Danene Thompson, was able to perform for about 40 minutes on Saturday. LebFest ‘10 also had numerous entertainers throughout the entire 3 day event. The children especially enjoyed the rides and attractions that were brought in just for them. All-in-all the event was a success and Rochester was the place to be for this weekend’s festival!