CLEVELAND — The Downtown Akron Partnership puts on many events throughout the year, full of culture and entertainment.

What You Need To Know

  • Downtown Akron's inaugural South Asian Celebration took place Sunday

  • There were plenty of vendors, music, crafts and more 

  • The Downtown Akron Partnership said events like these are important for the community 

Sunday people gathered in Downtown Akron’s Cascade Plaza for the inaugural Downtown Akron South Asian Celebration. 

“Showing people what everybody around the world celebrates, so I love it,” said Sonal Jain.

Jain has been an artist for 25 years. Her painting was selected to be on the flyer for the festival. Along with her artwork, there were plenty of other vendors, cultural performances, Bollywood music, crafts, and more. 

“I want to show the world like how beautiful things India makes and I can create too lot of things so it’s just a mix of everything that’s what inspired me bringing balancing of cultures,” Jain said.

Families spent the afternoon enjoying everything the celebration offered, especially the Gulal, which is a colored powder for HOLI Play. 

“We have a lot of fun stuff going on here today, we have a holy celebration going on where kids are playing with colors, colored powered and we have it there for free, and we have kids balloons that we have wonderful partnerships with them to have them make wonderful balloons for kids and we have a lot of vendors,” said Laxmi Roshini, a Cleveland Bollywood instructor.

Dominc Caruso with the Downtown Akron Partnership said cultural events like this one are important for the community. 

“Akron is a very diverse community. We have a lot of different people that live here and we want to reflect the community and make people welcome downtown and this is one way we do it,” Caruso said.

The Akron Downtown Partnership has plenty more events and festivals on the calendar throughout the rest of the year. You can also visit their website to suggest an event.