Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Lan Liu (from left), Ling Li, Ru Li, Xiaoyi Zhong and Zhan Wang perform traditional Chinese dances Saturday at the Local Colors festival in Roanoke.

Abigale Sanee of Roanoke visited Local Colors wearing traditional Gambian clothing.

ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times

Children from Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Roanoke dance Saturday at Local Colors in Roanoke's Elmwood Park. The festival showcases the ethnic diversity of the community.

Scenes from Saturday's Local Colors festival, which spilled across Elmwood Park and into downtown Roanoke:

The women of Cookies and Anarchy, a new, local, "tribal fusion belly dance" troupe, prepared to head toward their festival performance, adjusting scarves, ribbons and jingling accessories.

"Tribal with a gothic sort of flair," ventured Amber Carter, describing her get-up.

"Urban," added Kaydee Hadden.

A steady procession of people marched past. Elmwood Park was packed with thousands of people drawn by bright sunshine, the promise of dancers clad just as elaborately as Cookies and Anarchy, and rows and rows of booths serving international foods or celebrating the many nationalities of the Roanoke Valley.

Carter and Hadden, both of Roanoke, had been lamenting that the third member of their group was sick and unable to make the festival. But now it was showtime.

Accompanied by Tonya Harris -- "I'm the camera woman" -- Cookies and Anarchy headed into the festival, jangling bells and turning heads.

Slim, red-haired Whitney Dobyns of Roanoke packed up her harp amid a throng of curious children. She'd just wrapped up a half-hour set of music from the British Isles on the festival's side stage.

"They love to touch the harp," Dobyns said of the youngsters. "It's a very tactile instrument."

Patient with questions about her music and instrument, Dobyns was on a tight schedule. She was due to perform later in the day at a wedding in Fincastle, the sort of event she often plays either by herself or with the group Obligato.

"Saturdays are busy days," Dobyns said, zipping the harp bag shut.

The Rev. Michael Furry, clad in a black cassock and silver cross and wearing the traditional full beard of an Eastern Orthodox priest, sat beside his St. Innocent of Alaska mobile bookstore and bestowed blessings on a stream of people coming to ask for them.

Even amid the sights and sounds of Local Colors, Furry and the bookstore were eye-catchers. The mobile store is a converted 1969 Chevrolet step van topped with a cupola and a golden cross that reach 17¹₂ feet -- an electrically-powered rig makes it lie flat for travel -- that Furry has taken as far as Arizona while spreading the word about Eastern Orthodoxy.

He and his wife, Susan, decided that St. Innocent of Alaska was an appropriate patron of their ministry because of his work in the early and mid-1800s among the Aleut and Tlingit Indians, into whose language Innocent translated services.

"Where are you from?" a woman asked, eyeing the array of icons and books displayed inside and outside the store.

"I'm originally from Kentucky," Furry answered.

"You're not from Bulgaria?"

"Our bishop's from Bulgaria," Furry said with a smile.

Over on the city market, on the fringes of the festival crowd, Jon Butler wielded a clipboard as he sought signatures on petitions to get Ralph Nader on the fall presidential ballot. The Army veteran and substitute teacher said his volunteer work was a good fit with his social studies classes.

Asked if it was more difficult getting Nader signatures this year than in the past, Butler shrugged.

"I've only been cussed twice," he said and laughed.

The Michas Polish dance troupe from Virginia Beach warned children to stay back during their next-to-last dance, whose Polish title could be translated as either "To wander" or "To mistreat," according to dancer Ben Albrandt.

Then three of the four men in the troupe, dressed alike in red shirts, white pants and long, black jackets, snapped whips around their partners as they worked through a precise set of steps.

Dancer Jenny DeArmond said afterward that the slick surface of the festival's main stage made it a challenge to stay out of the way of the whips. "It was like ice skating," she said.

But there were no mishaps. And tricky footing aside, Local Colors remains a favorite festival for the troupe, which has been performing for 25 years, DeArmond said.

"We've been pretty pain-free in Roanoke," added dancer Michael Graham.

Mian Wang wiped tears from her cheeks at the booth dedicated to China as she talked about the recent earthquake there that killed tens of thousands of people.

"I'm touched that so many people stopped by and asked about it," Wang said.

A box for donations and sheets of poster board on which people could write messages of sympathy sat on the booth's table. Both had been well used throughout the day, Wang said.

"I think it's most important to show our support," she said.

On the sidewalk next to the main pedestrian path between Elmwood Park and the City Market, Rudy Saunders of Roanoke kept a skilled and relentless rhythm going on a hand drum and chanted at passers-by. Next to him, Pat Baker, also of Roanoke, danced and sang a simple melody over and over.

"Big Lick! Hunh!" roared Saunders.

"Celebrate! Happy people!" warbled Baker.

Children danced, passers-by smiled, and slowly, a stack of dollars grew in the box next to the pair.

All across Elmwood Park, an effort was under way to remind festivalgoers that the diversity and multiculturalism on display Saturday are more than one-day phenomena.

Fliers were being handed out for the Haitian Flag Day celebration today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the park -- an event that like Local Colors is sponsored by The Roanoke Times -- or for the 10th Annual Lebanese Festival, May 30 to June 1.

Furry said he'd been asked to bring the St. Innocent of Alaska Eastern Orthodox Bookstore to the Grandin Road Festival today and to more events later. In many ways, the goals of such events echoed his own, the priest said.

"We're here to plant seeds," Furry said.