A couple weeks after going to the Chinese New Year festival in Raleigh, we were back at the State Fairgrounds this past weekend for the North Carolina Turkish Festival. The first thing that struck me about the festival was how relatively sparse the crowd was. Whereas at the Chinese New Year festival almost all the tables in the front row were filled and the surrounding areas were bubbling with activity, the Turkish Festival was much more low key. There were small pockets of people here and there, but there were virtually no lines and we were able to sit near the front.

Though we only stayed a couple hours, we had enough time to sample some Turkish food and drink, take some pictures, and enjoy the stage performance, which featured some nice dancing and drumming, accented by vividly colorful costumes.