Lowell, Massachusetts, Juily 2013
2013 was a banner year at the annual Lowell Folk Festival. What started as a one tent operation 25 years ago where pre-cooked food was brought in in coolers turned into a well-oiled machine with a multi-station kitchen: there’s the vegetable cutting table, the noodle prep, the wrapping station, the rice mashers, the fryers, and the grills.
The lure that creates the long lines is the BBQ grill smoking up the appetite and the fried turon (banana fritters) and lumpia (spring rolls) hot from the wok- people have to be warned NOT to bite into it immediately but to let it cool down. The “gawkah blockah” is the crowd in the front kitchen amazed at how the pancit (noodles) and sinangag (fried rice) are being tossed right in front of their plates. For three days, the volunteers work hard to keep the lines moving and happy!
The annual festival is IP’s biggest fundraiser. The 2014 calendar will be on July 25, 26 and 27.