Wichita State students and community members have the opportunity to experience Asian culture and support fellow students without actually traveling thousands of miles.

Five Wichita State students will compete Saturday in the Miss Wichita Asian Festival Scholarship Pageant on Saturday at the Wichita Asian Festival.

 “The whole point of this festival is that people will be exposed to Asian cultures through culinary and performing arts,” said Lily Wu, president of the Wichita Asian Association and director of the Miss Wichita Asian Festival Pageant.

Wu, a 2007 graduate of WSU, is a reporter for KAKE-TV.

The festival takes place from 5:30 to 10 p.m. at Century II Convention Hall, 225 W. Douglas Ave., and is free to the public. More than 40 food vendors will be at the festival, while the other half of the festival will consist of performing arts, Wu said.

Asian dancing, singing and martial arts will entertain guests throughout the evening, but the pageant is the highlight of the night. Each contestant must represent her country of heritage.

 “This year, there are 11 contestants competing in the pageant,” said WSU sophomore Erina Narita, Miss Japan. “We as contestants wear traditional outfits, introduce our cultures with tri-folds and perform in the talent show on the stage.”

The festival includes contestants of the pageant from Derby, Salina and Wichita. Other contestants attend high schools and colleges around the area, excluding one contestant from the University of California, Berkeley.

The Wichita Asian Festival started at WSU in 1981, Wu said.

“The main goal of the festival has always been the same, and that is to showcase and honor Asian cultural art,” she said. “We just want to give people a little glimpse of how diverse Asia is,” Wu said.

Wu said the biggest misconception about the festival is that only people from the Asian community attend. She said guests from any ethnic groups are strongly encouraged to come to the festival.

“We always welcome new people to come to the festival,” she said. “It is truly Wichita’s biggest event that people don’t know about. It’s free and you don’t get a lot of those around Wichita.”

In the last 35 years, the festival has grown to accommodate more than 6,000 people. Although attendance has grown, the festival organizers want to increase attendance to include a variety of people from the Wichita area.

“Overall it is always a great event to come see and spend time with friends,” Narita said. “The performances and explanations of separate cultures are a way to learn about the diverse backgrounds people have come from.”