PHOTOS: Week-long food festival in Kurdistan aims to raise health awareness
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Food Festival Week began on April 26, 2019. (Photo: Kurdistan 24/Wladimir van Wilgenburg)
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – On Friday, a group that promotes healthy eating in the Kurdistan Region kicked off a food festival at Erbil’s Sami Abdulrahman Park ahead of regular fasting throughout the holy month of Ramadan that starts in early May.
Food Festival Week is sponsored by the AVI Organization, founded in 2017, and offers a wide array of food cuisines from over 50 restaurants from all over Kurdistan and the world sold at special discounted prices and accompanied by several live musical acts.
Some of the cuisine offered at Food Festival Week. (Photo: Kurdistan 24/Wladimir van Wilgenburg)
“We have Kurdish, Indian food, all types of food,” Kovan Faeq, the vice-president of the AVI Organization, told Kurdistan 24. “We try to have all types of food, so that everyone enjoys it.”
On Saturday, well-known Kurdish singer Bilind Ibrahim will perform and other bands will play throughout the festival. On Friday, May 3, a surprise singer will cap off the final day of the event.
Crowds gather at Food Festival Week. (Photo: Kurdistan 24/Wladimir van Wilgenburg)
Faeq said that the festival’s aim is not merely to please crowds with food and music, but to help instill healthy eating habits into the normal routines of people across the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.
In the past, the group has also organized a Kurdistan health week and an anti-tobacco campaign.
More cuisine offered at Food Festival Week. (Photo: Kurdistan 24/Wladimir van Wilgenburg)
“Our aim is give awareness about food and types of food, rice, oil, and sweets, on what level they are using it, and how they are using it.”
He continued, “We will have panels, on sweets, oil, and how Kurdish and Iraqi people [eat] food during Ramadan. They will [typically] have very heavy meals at the end of the day, which is very unhealthy. We will have nutritionists [who] will talk about how to eat during Ramadan.”
Some of the over 50 restaurants that set up food stands at Food Festival Week. (Photo: Kurdistan 24/Wladimir van Wilgenburg)
The combination of good food and entertainment, said Faeq, is an important part of sharing health information with the people of Kurdistan, and that other such events will likely be organized in the coming months and years.
Editing by John J. Catherine
