Redwood City’s 15th annual Bay Area Lebanese Festival showcased Lebanon’s vibrant hospitality and culture on Saturday. People came from across the Bay to attend the event, which featured a day-long celebration packed with live music, dancing, artisan booths, and food. The event was hosted by Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church in downtown Redwood City’s Old Courthouse Square.
Rola Abiezzi, a member of the Bay Area’s Lebanese community for over 35 years and an active member of the church’s social events committee, helped make the event possible. She, along with other committee members, organized sponsorships and ticket sales for large raffle prizes. But for Abiezzi, the festival is about more than organizing the event; it’s about bringing people together.
“We include everybody from all sorts of backgrounds. We love Americans to be part of it, we like all other religions, so it’s not a religious festival. It’s actually a communal festival,” she said.
She also emphasized the importance of a tight-knit community, which she says helped spread awareness of the event and attracted vendors and volunteers. Aside from the logistics, Abiezzi explained how the festival is significant for many local Lebanese people.
“This event is very important to bring people together and to bring us Lebanese together, and for our children to know our culture and to know our food and traditions. So it’s very valuable for that generation to come, and also for everyone else to understand that Lebanon is a beautiful country, and it’s beautiful to get to know it,” Abiezzi said.
Naseem Raad, co-founder of Beirut Spice Co, shared a similar sentiment. Due to the insolvency that businesses faced during Lebanon’s economic collapse in 2020, Raad started his company in the agricultural sector, which had remained relatively stable. Raad and his wife, Tina, have lived between the U.S. and Lebanon for their entire lives. For them, their company is a way to connect the two countries.
Like Abiezzi, Raad believes his business can help share the true essence of Lebanese people, especially during a tumultuous period in their country.
“A lot of the stuff you see on the news is war or crazy stuff happening, but we’re the same as any other people. We spend most of our days paying bills, going to the gym, eating food, and hanging out with friends. So this is a small part of being able to explain that, so everything that you see on the news or hear about doesn’t affect your judgment of people as a whole,” Raad said.
Charbel Elie Nasser is the consul general of Lebanon in Los Angeles and was traveling to San Francisco for work. His trip happened to coincide with the festival. At the festival, Nasser helped people with Lebanese heritage navigate the process of attaining Lebanese citizenship. Nasser also elaborated on the depth of Lebanese culture beyond the conflicts portrayed on social media.
“I believe, as a consul general, that Lebanon has a very rich culture, and now due to social media and due to this interconnection among generations and countries, I believe that Lebanon is gaining more visibility, much more than what we see only in the media about wars,” he said. “We have much more to offer, and we have a very rich culture, as you can see. We take pride in it, and we would love to celebrate it and share it with others.”
Nasser left off with a message for high schoolers. “I want to first tell them that they belong to an era where they have all the means and ways to expand their knowledge. This is good. Keep doing it because the world needs new generations of educated people that can, through culture, through love, bring people together,” he said.
Besides the vendors and artisans, the event was fueled by volunteers, such as Burlingame High School junior Zeina Badran. The celebration allowed her to reconnect with the culture she was raised in. “When you walk in here, everywhere you walk, it’s like you’re back in Lebanon. You can see all the different kinds of fruits, different kinds of pastries, and all different kinds of foods everywhere. The smell, the music, it’s all the same as Lebanon,” Badran said.
Many of the volunteers, including Badran, were returners. “My family and I, we volunteer at different booths, and it’s just a way to feel like we’re back home,” she said.
Badran’s friend, Kristen, elaborated on the festival’s authentic portrayal of Lebanese culture. She grew up in Lebanon until moving to California at age 10. “It has all the real culture and food from Lebanon, and it’s such a nice environment. It really reminds me of home. Mainly the food, the drinks, the people, the attitude of the people—how we talk, how we dance, and also the music all represent our culture,” she said.
