Friday night’s Global Gala, “One World, One Festival,” will showcase more than 25 countries from around the world all represented at Iowa State and in the Ames community.

“[The show] allows students to see the world from a different perspective and at the same time allows students to showcase their own culture to students here,” said Anna Prisacari, Student Union Board multicultural director. Prisicari helped plan the event and also helped write the script for the main stage performance.

The event, presented by the Student Union Board, is the 7th Annual Global Gala and will be held in the Memorial Union. Global Gallery, a new element to Global Gala will begin at 6 p.m. in the Sun Room followed by a presentation of multicultural snacks at 6:30 p.m. in the South Ballroom, with the main performance beginning at 8 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. All events are free and open to the public.

“What I like about this show and why I continue doing it is, it has a good combination of educational and entertaining aspects. You come to learn something about others’ country,” Prisacari said. “This is something that students can come to learn, to experience, to taste, to see, to hear music, and also it all is delivered through channels of entertainment.”

Prisacari is most looking forward to the Global Gallery, which will allow student organizations, individual students and community members to showcase their cultural artifacts and interact with the audience.

“This was something that was expressed in a comment card last year saying. … ‘What if I don’t dance, and I don’t sing, but I still want to represent my country in Global Gala? What can I do?’ … It could encourage others who are not performing, but still doing some type of art that is of cultural significance, to join us,” Prisacari said.

Some participants in the Global Gallery include stations displaying Henna tattoos featured by the Indian Student Association, origami featured by the ISU Origami Club, Crafts created by the Association of Malaysian Students at ISU, photography from the Russian-Speaking Student Association and Calligraphy featured by the International Student Council.

“It is a very unique art show because it has participants from all over the world and several different media and activities for all ages,” said Krista Nielsen, who is one of the art directors for Global Gallery.

“Even if you are not into art there is something to get from each table, as well as opportunities for students to connect with other multicultural groups,” she said.

In the main stage performance beginning at 8 p.m., six “tourists” travel around the world experiencing different festivals during different months of the year. The first destination is Malaysia in January, and the hosts take the audience all the way through December where the presentation ends with a Masquerade Ball Finale.

“I think the end dance looks really fun because it gets a lot of people up on stage dancing together,” said Paige Baenen, a student volunteer and junior in event management. Baenen said the show is a “mesh of all the cultures” and a great way to display them all together.

Prisacari said this year’s production had more volunteers than ever before including individual from the community, and she hopes this year’s performance brings more than 350 people to the Great Hall.

“Anyone who comes into this event, they get to experience culture from different perspectives by trying food, by trying clothes, by seeing pictures, by hearing music and by meeting those people, too,” she said.