Locals can experience sights, sounds and flavors of numerous cultures from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday in Bradwell Park during the Hinesville Small World Festival.
Twenty-five world marketplace vendors will sell clothing, crafts, jewelry, candles and other items, festival organizers said.
Twelve food vendors will offer a taste of various countries’ cuisines in the festival’s international food court, including foods from Jamaica, Germany, Panama, Nigeria, Puerto Rico and Italy.
“We are taking a little piece of the numerous cultures represented in Hinesville and putting them in one place to allow people to share their culture while also learning about the culture of others,”  Hinesville Downtown Development Authority program assistant Zach Claxton said.
“The Small World Festival in Hinesville was held in the 1980s and ’90s in celebration of the numerous countries and cultures represented in the area, many of which come to the community by way of military personnel who have traveled the world, have international family members and even represent various cultures themselves,” Hinesville Mayor Jim Thomas said.
Thomas supported HDDA’s efforts to bring the event back to the community, according to Claxton. 
“Hinesville’s Small World Festival was held in 2008 and ’09 with crowds exceeding 5,000 people, and (the festival) continues to grow each year,” he said.
Live entertainment will take place throughout the day on the festival’s stage, Claxton said. 
“From belly dancing to a salsa band and everything in between, visitors will experience more than 20 cultures from around the world,” he promised. 
Musical acts include One Nation Under Praise, Errol “Trini” Brown, Conjunto Folklorico Orgullo Panameno, The Dreamland Express and Bhavi Patel (traditional Indian songs and dances), according to Claxton. The Latin American band Grupo Kachimbos will wrap up the festival, he said.
In addition, Hinzarrah Gypsies will perform the ancient art of belly dance, and Hinesville World Martial Arts will demonstrate Korean-style martial arts, Claxton said.
“(Troupe members) are girls that have been taking my class at the (Liberty County Armed Services Family) YMCA for just over a year,” Hinzarrah Gypsies troupe leader and belly dance instructor Jasmine Kersey said. “They’re really catching on fast, and I asked them if they’d want to perform with me and they said, ‘Sure.’”
Kersey said she will present Russian and Spanish Gypsy dances, one of the troupe members will perform a tribal fusion belly dance and another will do a classic Egyptian-style belly dance.
“It’s going to be fun,” Kersey said.
For more information, call Zach Claxton at 877-4332 (HDDA) or email discoverdowntown@coastalnow.net.