A Success Story: First Turkish Festival of Charlotte
Posted on November 20th, 2010 3:19PM EST
Dear Members of the Turkish American Society,
The First Turkish Festival of Charlotte turned out to be a great success. A crowd of about 1000 - 1500 people have come to the Extravaganza Depot on Tryon to enjoy Turkish hospitality, food, folk dances, music, hand crafts, plays, culture and more. During the interviews with Charlotte Observer and Channel 14, I felt proud to talk about our community and the beauties of our country.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/11/14/1836938/festivalgoers-delight-in-all-things.html
I truly believe this past Saturday is the beginning of a new page in the history of the Turkish Americans in the Greater Charlotte Region and North Carolina. With such a success, it is natural that the expectations of our American friends will grow in the future. I believe as a dynamic growing community, we are ready to embrace all expectations. One of the success factors for future will be our ability to learn fast form our initial experience. While we did great in general, we know that there are still things we can improve. As the festival committee, we already started discussing and creating a list to document improvement areas to assist next year’s committee. Therefore, please feel free to send us your constructive feedback.
On Saturday, we were honored and proud with the presence of our friends from other parts of North Carolina who came to work with the Charlotte team on this special day. There are so many people we need to thank for this success. On behalf of the ATA-NC Charlotte, I would like to start by extending our thanks to ATA-NC President Buket Aydemir and volunteers who came all the way from Raleigh/Cary, special thanks to Engin Reis and Anatolian waves who presented vibrant dances from different parts of Turkey and Group Dunden Bugune for beautiful melodies, thanks to Nedret Karan for a mesmerizing Kanun recital, thanks to Pelin and Bora Bali for the colorful water painting, Also special thanks to Zeki Maviyildiz ve Bluestar Dance Troupe who came all the way from Ashville and presented a beautiful choreography full of energy, and finally, to our BTF team from Greensboro. Our festival committee was composed of multiple leaders, I am proud to work side by side with these wonderful people. Among them I would like to recognize the contributions of our Vice President Okan Pala for the countless hours he spent on many aspects of the festival including the web-site, festival program and sponsorship, also we are grateful to our Treasurer Cinar Gulkanat who spent many hours for coordinating the food. Thanks to Pelin Bali for spending many hours for designing the Festival logo, poster, handbills, t-shirt and banners, Vicdan Akyurek for leading a great Marketing campaign and exhibition, Handan Telimen for coordinating children activities, our Secretary Sumru Gokcen for coordinating the Cooking Demo and making the delicious dolmas to get us in Charlotte Observer which attracted many to the festival, Agnes Ozelkan for Photo booth and Karagoz-Hacivat coordination, Edil Demirel for muzik & video, Fatos Gokalp for her help with decoration and raffle coordination. Besides these people, we had tens of other friends and many of our children who worked very hard to make this event a big success. Not to make this message even longer, I will go ahead and attach a list of our list of amazing volunteers. Thank you for your continued support.
Finally, this festival would not be possible without our sponsors. Thanks again to our Main Sponsor: Turkish Cultural Foundation, Platinum Sponsors: ATA-NC, BTF, and Yafa Market & Café, Gold Sponsor: FHS Supply & Manufacturing Inc, Silver Sponsors: Indigo Blue Skin Studio, Apex Martial Arts, Lowe’s, Bali&Bali Works, Carolina Kebap and Bronz sponsor: Tulumba.com for all their support.
Respectfully,
Ertunga Ozelkan, Ph.D.
President
American-Turkish Association of North Carolina at Charlotte
501 (c)(3), For forever lasting American-Turkish Friendship
Bali & Bali Works