This weekend, the area around City Hall will be filled with food smells from across the globe and vendors selling handmade items. This year marks the 40th year that people gather in Bartholomew County to display their cultures and to get a little taste of other cultures at the Ethnic Expo. Behind the scenes, there’s a list of tasks to get done in preparation for the hungry crowd.

The months leading up to the Expo can be a pretty stressful time for vendors. Between figuring out how many ingredients will be needed, estimating when the busy times will be, and figuring out how many people will work and at what times, they have a lot on their plates. Our German Club is sponsoring the German booth this year. German teacher Amelia Shaw, the Club sponsor, gives us a little insight into what goes on

“I take the numbers of what we sold from the previous year to figure out ordering (ingredients) for this year,” Shaw said. “A lot of it is weather dependent, so if the weather is not very good, people don’t come, and we don’t want to be left with a lot of stuff left over.”

Figuring out who is available to work the different shifts can make planning complicated.

“Leyton Hottell is running this as his Senior Project, and he and I will be there the whole time. We have two-hour time slots where kids sign up,” Shaw said. We like to have eight students working at a time; two on grills, people prepping food, people taking orders, and then people running the cash register.”

Hottell had to have a timeline on getting his senior project done.

“I started getting information, materials, and food orders ready in late August and early September, so about a month and a half out from the event itself,” Hotell said. “It takes quite a while to organize everything.”

Experienced vendors know how to predict busy times down to a science.

“Normally on Friday the busiest time is lunch because we get a lot of people from Cummins and offices coming downtown during their lunch break. On Saturday, if the weather’s good, it’s just crazy all day long,” Shaw said.

The exact number of vendors is not yet confirmed. Last year featured almost 40 food vendors and over 20 market vendors. Accompanying the food and market vendors, there were 15 entertainment acts to watch during the festival.

Hottell has some recommendations for booths to visit.

“The food stand serving gyros and the other serving kebabs was very popular and I heard really good things about them,” Hottell said. “Maybe this is a little biased, but I will stand by German Currywurst from the German food booth.”

Though Hottell doesn’t normally have time to explore Ethnic Expo he has advice for people who are attending the event this weekend.

“I would whole-heartedly recommend going with a group of friends,” Hottell said. “It makes the experience enjoyable because your friends might try other foods from different cultures and you can share some food and drinks with them.”