The Reston Multicultural Festival marked its 25th anniversary on Saturday, an event Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn said honors Reston's founding principles of arts, culture and inclusivity.
"I want to thank the Reston Community Center, Reston Town Center Association and BXP for hosting this annual event," Alcorn said in his weekly newsletter. He noted the festival features music, dance, traditional crafts and cultural traditions from around the world.
"As I said in my remarks at the festival's opening, multiculturalism and diversity are our community's strength — and it's what attracts people to Reston," Alcorn said.
Alcorn credited Reston founder Bob Simon, saying the community was founded in the early 1960s as an open community welcoming people of all races. He said people thought Simon was crazy at the time, and dozens of banks refused to help finance Reston's development.
Fairfax County as a whole is becoming more diverse, according to a demographic report released in June. Citing 2020 Census data, the report found less than half of the county's residents are now white (49.5%), compared with almost 70% twenty years earlier. Asians make up 20.5% of the population, Hispanics 17.3% and African Americans 9.6%, up 1% from 20 years ago.
Alcorn said diversity helps broaden perspectives, fuels innovation in the arts, food, culture and business, and is vital to economic success. He cited an MIT study finding immigrants are 80% more likely to start a business than people born in the U.S., and noted immigrant entrepreneurs founded or co-founded companies including Alphabet, Nvidia, Tesla, SpaceX and Instacart.
At his booth during the festival, Alcorn said attendees were invited to pin a world map marking where they were born or had lived outside the U.S., with pins dotting every continent except Antarctica.
In other district news, the Friends of the Reston Library Fall Book Sale runs through Sunday, with proceeds funding literacy materials and programs. Waitlist applications for affordable apartments at The Exchange at Spring Hill Station in Tysons open Oct. 5 through Oct. 11 for applicants earning less than 50% of the area median income. The building will provide 516 apartments.
A ribbon cutting for the Ashgrove Trail and Old Courthouse Spring Branch Stream Restoration is set for Sept. 28 at 5 p.m., and a free Brain Health and Dementia Resource Fair will be held Oct. 3 at the Fairfax County Government Center.