SAN ANTONIO -- Crews are hard at work getting ready for this year's Texas Folklife Festival

For 47 years it has been a staple in San Antonio and a way to celebrate the state's diversity and heritage.

"The Texas Folklife festival, this is our Texas family reunion," said James Benavides with the UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures.

This weekend there will be six stages of entertainment from which to choose. There wil be plenty of music, authentic food, crafts and a lot of people.

"For the three days I'd expect anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000," Benavides said. 

Something else interesting about the celebration is that every year the institute is finding new cultural groups and giving them a platform from which to be represented at the festival.

"We're going to see our friends from the Beligian community, the Greeks. The Romanians are new this year, the Congolese are new this year - the Syrian community - the Syrian community has fantastic menu in the works for this year's festival," he said.

For other groups the festival is a way to get their name and organization into the public.

Maureen Brown is with the Polish Heritage Center and working to showcase its facility in Panna Maria once it's finished.

"It's going to be exhibits, archives, library, community center. So it'll be a national and local, celebrating the immigration of the Polish community starting in 1854," Brown said. 

For three day dozens of cultures will be represented. Some have even been around since the beginning, 47 years ago. Each has a story to share about their own heritage and place in Texas history.

"What better way to experience culture than to be immersed in it and to learn by doing, by experiencing it for yourself," Benavides said.

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