Be prepared to take a trip around the world in just a few hours and experience a variety of different cultures through arts, entertainment and food.

The 24th annual Portage County Cultural Festival will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 7, at Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH). A shuttle bus will be available from Chase Bank downtown.

Admission to the event continues to be free of charge.

“The real focus is bringing together cultures, and I think it’s really successful,” said Liz Fulton, a member of the Portage County Cultural Festival Executive Committee. “Over the years it’s just really been looking at bringing in as many different cultures as an exposure to everyone here. It’s such a neat celebration.

“Each year we make different changes to make it better,” she said. “We want it to be a doable thing that people enjoy.”

This year, the event features 38 different cultures including a new one: Switzerland. The culture will be represented through exhibits by Swiss Center of North American out of New Glarus.

Swiss culture typically is characterized by diversity, which is shown in a variety of traditional customs. The country boasts three major languages (German, French and Italian), and is known for its mountains.

Tradition is mostly expressed in music, dance, poetry, wood carving and embroidery, but nowadays Switzerland also is known for its skiing and folk arts like alphorn and yodeling. Switzerland is also known for Swiss chocolate, Swiss cheese, watches and the Swiss Army knife.

Other new items to check out include The Beat, which will be serving Italian food, and an additional Native American food vendor, Asian International Café, a new Hibachi and a second Jamaican group, Fulton said.

For the second year, Wildly Amazing Bite-Sized Appetizers (WABA) will be available for attendees to purchase for $1 from participating vendors, the number of which has doubled from last year, according to Jon Gadbois, who works with marketing and publicizing for the event.

“It makes it more inclusive and that’s the ultimate goal, to be as inclusive with everyone as we can be,” he said.

Attendees can vote on their top taste, and that vendor will receive a plaque and the reward of holding the traveling trophy for a full year. Last year, Lemon Grass Noodle House won.

The event draws close to 14,000 attendees annually, spurring the addition of the North Tent for activities and events several years ago. Nice weather allows some additional freedom as people wander outside with their food and find some entertainment outdoors as well. The 11 am. to 1 p.m. hours typically are the most crowded, Fulton said.

“What’s amazing to me is we’ve been able to keep it free because of the community support, and the community support is huge,” she said. “To have it where we really have the community putting this on, it’s great.

“I had one woman who made a donation one year and then the next came back and donated again and said ‘I’m doing it because I can,’” Fulton said. “That’s invigorating to me.”

There are more than 30 ethnic art demonstrators who will be housed in the South Commons area; arts, crafts, exhibits, food and beverages will be in each of the North Tent, North Commons, North Terrace, Auditorium hallway, Fieldhouse and South Commons/West Terrace areas. International Headquarters will be in the South Commons/Tunnel/West Terrace area, which will include the passport depot, security and volunteers.

There will be crafts to purchase, hands-on activities for children and entertainment on six stages throughout the day. Each performance calls attention to a particular culture, and each vendor offers food native to that culture. When children bring their passports to be stamped, each vendor should tell the children something about the culture, said Constance and Marcus Fang, who have been with the festival since its outgrowth from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point’s International Festival.

The goal to bring about awareness of other cultures has also brought the community together in more ways than they knew at the beginning, they said.

“Thanks to the generous support of area businesses, organizations, and supportive individuals, there has been no change in the ‘no admission (fee)’ policy with the result that entire families have been coming to the PCCF year after year,” Marcus Fang said.

“More importantly, there has been tremendous growth in the number of volunteers making the set-up on Friday afternoon and evening as well as the tear-down on Saturday afternoon a smooth operation,” he said.

Close to 500 volunteers have stepped up year after year, Fulton said, and that gift is part of what helps the festival continue as it does.

“It is 100 percent volunteer planned and run,” said Kayla Rombalski, who works with the volunteers. “We have several dedicated steering committee members who meet nearly year-round to plan and prepare for the Festival each year … the planning committee works hard to ensure that each year the event is better than the last, so that it doesn’t lose its appeal or begin to feel redundant.”

As the event continues to draw visitors from farther and farther away each year, so too grows the need for volunteers, and this year is no exception, Rombalski said. About 150 volunteers are needed for the children’s area alone, she said, and there also is a need for all activities: set up, kitchen, children’s area, hospitality, table cleaners in the afternoon and take down.

Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Kayla or Nathan Rombalski at 715-498-9030 or email them at [email protected] Interested individuals may also sign up for volunteer shifts online at www.volunteersrock.org/aem/general/.