Hometown Holidays Showcases a Diversity of Cultures and Fun

Every corner of Rockville Town Center moved to a different beat as music played on eight stages set up between East Montgomery and Beall avenues Saturday.

Rockville’s 24th annual Hometown Holidays showcased the diversity that is the city today.

Janet Kelly of the city’s Human Rights and Community Mediation Administration staffed a table where visitors could get their names written in languages spoken among the city’s immigrants — Russian, Chinese, Hebrew, Bulgarian, Arabic and Korean. A diversity wheel was filled with questions about the traditions and pop culture of the various populations. Everybody who played won a prize.

More than 18 restaurants and grocers sold food highlighting the different cultures. Visitors had their choice of pizza and barbecue, or empanadas, lobster guacamole and curry.

Rose Gardner of Damascus was enjoying her first Hometown Holidays.

“Everything is well organized. [There's] ample space,” she said. “This is nicely done. It’s impressive. It really is.”

A long line stretched in front of Carmen’s Italian Ice during the heat of the day.

Larry Price spent the day in the middle of East Middle Lane, dressed in a cookie costume, trying to steer people to his family’s baked goods. Price’s daughter, Jackie, 17, and some 30 helpers had baked cookies, cupcakes and brownies as part of the Great American Bake Sale to raise money for Share Our Strength, a group that fights childhood hunger in America.

This was the. With Price and his wife, Suzanne, paying for the ingredients, they usually raise $4,000 to $6,000 during Hometown Holidays, he said.

The Gawler family of Rockville rode their bicycles to the celebration.

“We love Hometown Holidays,” Elizabeth Gawler said. “We come every year.”

After sampling the music and food, Holland, 2, Gawler and her cousin Maggie Sue Richey, 5, were ready to try the moon bounces, of which there were many—ranging from a castle to a giant slide. 

More than two dozen artisans displayed their crafts in Town Square.

Business got off to a slow start Saturday, probably due to the heat and humidity, but picked up as more people arrived for the featured entertainment at night, said Chris Naughton of Letter Art Photos. He sold 4 x 6 black and white photographs of letters of the alphabet.

Liliane Blom of Tabular Rasa Art Studio of Rockville was pleased with where the artists’ booths were set up along Maryland Avenue.

“Good traffic today,” she said. "This year is better, I think because the location is better.”