Starting tomorrow, Friday, Renton is showing off its diversity with the Multicultural Festival, a two-day event that runs through Saturday evening.

The city and the mayor’s Inclusion Task Force are coordinating this entertainment-filled event that includes music, dance, story time, arts and food.

The festival begins 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 30 at Carco Theater. Performances will include African dance, Ukrainian music, a fashion show, Bollywood dance and jazz music.

The venue changes the second day, Oct. 1., to Renton Pavilion Event Center. Festivities will start at 11 a.m. and will include Brazilian music, marimba music, tap dance, break dance, lion dance, taiko drumming and martial arts demonstration, among other performances.

There will also be special appearances by Miss Washington Alicia Cooper and former KING5 news anchor Dennis Bounds.

There will be a chance for the audience to participate in the storytelling portion of the festival. Attendees can sign up to share stories that honor and celebrate their culture and the city’s diversity in a segment that’s inspired by national storytelling events like The Moth. Participants can sign up for this between noon and 2 p.m., Oct. 1 at the Piazza. Click here for more information.

Previously, forums, workshops and even a multicultural social event have been hosted by the Inclusion Task Force, but a festival of this magnitude is first of its kind. According to Preeti Shridhar, Renton’s deputy public affairs administrator, the festival was birthed out of task force’s desire to “celebrate diversity and bring it to the larger community.”

“We’ve seen for the longest time that Renton has this amazing diversity as part of our community,” said Shridhar in an earlier interview. “For us, what has been important is to ask how can we not only celebrate this diversity and recognize it, but how can we celebrate an opportunity of all members of the community to get to know each other, to learn more about each other, to get a sense of the heritages of your neighbors, the people you work with, and give a special place and honor that diversity.”

The family-friendly event is free and open to the public, and will include a variety of art, food and booths from various ethnic communities.

Catch the Renton Multicultural Festival 6 -9 p.m., Sept. 30 at Carco Theater, 1717 Maple Valley Hwy, and 11 a.m. – 3 p.m., Oct. 1 at Renton Pavilion Event Center and Piazza Park, 233 Burnett Ave. S.