Item 8 - NarrativeJune 8th, 2023
This year will mark the 6th year of Diwalifest celebrated hosted by Southlake Foundation.
Diwali, or also known as Deepavali or Festival of Lights, is India's biggest festival and most
important holiday of the year. The festival gets its name from the row (avail) of clay lamps (deepa)
that Indians light outside their homes to symbolize the inner light that protects from spiritual
darkness.
This year we will host the event for 2 days. On the 1st day Friday Nov 3rd, 2023, will start with the
inaugural ceremony by Southlake Mayor and will be only for the sponsors to attend. We are not
going to publish about this anywhere in social media. We plan on using the small area in front of
Rustin and Family Park. Attendance will be around 250. Event starts at 6 PM and ends at 8 PM.
Every year we have been renting generators to draw the power where required, will do the same
for this year event.
On the 2nd day Saturday Nov 4th, 2023,Event starts at 12 Noon and ends at 10 PM.we will have
kids and adults participate and have cultural programs at the main stage. There will be liquor in
accordance with TABC guidelines, live food stations and food trucks serving hot food.
As show in Site Plan alcohol sales will be near Grand Ave and we will have alcohol barrier fencing,
and volunteers/officer at entry/exit points to alcohol sales area. Kids Zone area will be setup on
State St near the Rustin Park with Face painting and Inflatables like Bounce House /slides, we will
have volunteers at Kids zone. Apart from food, music and cultural performances, there is a variety
of handicraft, art, jewelry, and other vendor stalls for the attendees to visit. We will have about
70 to 80 vendors including food vendors. The fireworks will be marking the prime time (8:30 PM)
for the event.Setting up for event will start on Friday Nov 3rd at 10 PM.
In 2022 we have been informed by the DPS that ~15,000 people show up for the Diwalifest. This
year (2023) we would expect the same flow. We have learned quite a lot from 2022. We would
like to increase the boundaries of the event as in Exhibit A. We will be requesting 8 uniformed
officers. We will have first-aid kit and physicians on stand-by at SLF Booth. We will have
volunteers/security company man the barricades. We will have volunteers at street
intersections/barricade to guide people to event and parking areas, will also have volunteers at
the event and vendor tents to control and guide people. As we will have water Barricades that
should help prevent moving barricades around. We will have about 250 Volunteers at the event.
Townsquare has quite a big space for parking, and we will continue to use East and West Parking
Garages. We will use Golf carts to drop off elderly at point near the intersection of Grand
St/Fountain Pl (as shown in Exhibit A). Volunteers will park in West Parking Garage
For tent setup we will use water buckets/blocks/sand buckets and each tent is 12 feet by 12 feet.
Dumpsters will be placed located near the west parking garage behind Town Hall with plywood
underneath, Porta Potty will be placed on Fountain Pl near State St, will coordinate with KITE
realty, and we will work with City to help with renting dumpsters, Porta Potty and fireworks
fencing. 24ʺ x 36ʺ signage will be used for storefronts; window displays and indoors. Yard and
political signs will be between 5” - 7”. Roadside and sidewalk signs will be between 6” - 12”
All activities and entertainment will be consistent with the previous year’s event. We request to
continue to have the ability to access the park property the day of Diwalifest. We will have the
presence of police officers at the event. We will have proper insurance for the event. Events
clean-up will start at 10 PM on Saturday Nov 4th, 2023.
Due to the many years of experience by the event organizers and the stability and maturity of
the event, we are respectfully requesting to be granted a Specific Use Permit in perpetuity.
Sincerely
Kush Rao
Southlake Foundation