Diwali Festival

Wake Forest marks Diwali, the festival of lights, with a free afternoon at Joyner Park run by the town's Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources department. It is one of the better cultural events on the town calendar and it has grown steadily.

The program runs to music, dance performances, hands-on arts and crafts, and a henna artist working through the afternoon.

Practical notes for the day:

• Bring chairs or a blanket. Seating is what you carry in.
• No alcohol
• No grills
• Dogs must be leashed

Joyner Park is the right venue for this. The open lawns absorb a crowd without it feeling packed, and the amphitheater gives the performances a proper focal point rather than a marquee in a parking lot.

If you have not been to a Diwali celebration before, the short version: it is a festival of light over darkness, celebrated across Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist traditions, and the public version of it is food, color, dance and family. Nobody will expect you to know anything. Turning up is the entire requirement.

Go early if you want the craft tables with your children rather than behind forty other people, and go late if you would rather see the performances with the light dropping. Three hours is enough to do both at a walk.

Free and open to everyone.