With the motto “Celebrate the World at Overlake,” the Redmond school’s cultural fair lasted four hours on Oct. 18 and featured more than 20 different countries’ cultures.

It was an “opportunity for the Overlake community to celebrate diversity within our communities,” said Mahtab Mahmoodzadeh, director of diversity at The Overlake School.

Overlake’s gym — the Field House — featured 20-plus informational booths, with each booth displaying clothing, brief history and artwork representative of the respective culture.

Also in the gym were artistic performances by the Overlake students, families and faculty. The performances ranged from traditional Indian Bollywood dancing, to Japanese musical performance, to Puerto Rican song and to a group of Overlake teachers and faculty members performing an Indian-Pakistani dance in the traditional clothing and accessories.

In the school cafeteria — the Campus Center — there was an arrangement of delicacies from different cultures.

“The Japanese mochis were wiped clean within the first hour,” Mahmoodzadeh laughingly explained.

Both the booths and the food items were prepared by the Overlake families who “took parts of (their) rich heritage and decided to share it,” said Mahmoodzadeh.

For the next time, “we are hoping for more upper school involvement,” as the level of upper school student attendance of the cultural fair was less than anticipated.

Mahmoodzadeh added, “We talked about moving (the cultural fair) to a different time, possibly to a Friday afternoon,” when the students would be more inclined to attend the fair to taste the food and enjoy the performances.

Mahmoodzadeh expressed her goal of “creating something sustainable,” with the cultural fair being hosted “hopefully every two years.”

Rachel Lee is a senior at The Overlake School in Redmond.