Kent International Festival coming to ShoWare on May 30

Melanie S Mosshart
For the Reporter

The Kent International Festival has been providing the Kent community with diverse cultural performances and international cuisine for the past six years.

The seventh annual festival returns Saturday, May 30 to the ShoWare Center.

Entertainment is one of the primary draws to the festival, and the primary source for discovering and presenting the talent to the community is one of the committee members of the festival, Nancy Skipton.

Skipton’s interest in music and dance stems from her youth on the East Coast and her involvement in choir and dance. While living in the Boston area, she attended Broadway plays and musicals and treasured the experience. She’s enjoyed the thrill of the theater and delight of dance for years, having been a member of the choir in junior high school and a dance troop in her twenties.

Skipton, who owns her own business as a wedding planner, Simply Celebrations & Events, has been promoting, directing and organizing the entertainment portion of the festival for the past five years. She was introduced to the festival through meeting Harpreet Gill, one of the original organizers of the festival.

Skipton started out in the information booth. However, through her networking with local high schools, community dance groups and multicultural celebrations in the area, she soon took the reins as the entertainment director of the festival. Next year she will step up as the festival coordinator when Dave Mortensen retires.

Skipton said she well equipped to lead the Kent International Festival Committee into the next generation of successful and well attended festivals and looks forward to the challenge.

For more information on the festival, visit www.kentinternationalfestival.com.