The city of Ames braved dipping temperatures and frosty winds to celebrate the different backgrounds of its residents with FACES this weekend.

Coordinators of FACES – Families of Ames Celebrating Ethnicities – said they were ecstatic with the festival’s success.

“The consensus was `exceptional,'” said Jan Beran, co-coordinator for the event. “We really accomplished our goal of bringing people together and introducing ourselves to the community.”

Beran said about 960 performers, volunteers, exhibitors and ethnic food vendors presented their culture at the festival Saturday in downtown Ames. She estimated about 1,000 people came and went through the city auditorium for the performances.

Vendors, booths and a stage for performers were supposed to be set up along Main Street, Beran said. The rain, however, caused performers to use the City Auditorium Stage and for booths to move into the hallways surrounding it.

Food vendors set up in the basement of First Christian Church across the street from the auditorium.

Beran said she was very happy with the event.

“We know we achieved our purpose,” she said. “So many people before and after the event said we needed something at this time . to bring us together. This fulfilled that need.”

Beran said everyone who worked at the event, including the organizers, were volunteers. Their help made the event run smoothly, she said.

“We had a wide range of volunteers,” Beran said. “It really brought people together who would never have been brought together otherwise. And it was a great time – even with the rain.”

The rain did dampen one event, however.

Hy-Vee sponsored an event to land Ames in the Guinness Book of World Records by forming the “largest human logo” Saturday morning.

The North American record, which Hy-Vee had hoped to break, is 10,003 people. The actual world record, set in Argentina, is 30,000 people.

“We figure we were about 9,700 and something off,” said Brad Auge, manager of perishables at Hy-Vee, 3800 W. Lincoln Way.

Auge said Hy-Vee scheduled the event in May, but canceled it because of thunderstorms. He blamed the weather for the low turnout.

“Most people probably woke up and saw the rain and thought `they’re not going to have it because they canceled it last time,'” he said. “It obviously wasn’t the 10,000 people we were hoping for.”

Stacy Sass, sophomore in Spanish, went to the event with several girls on her dorm floor.

“I thought it was a really cool idea to celebrate all of the cultures in Ames,” she said.

Sass said she liked the interactive booths and the “different dances on the stage.”

Jen Oftedal, sophomore in elementary education, also was downtown in Caf‚ Diem during the festival.

“All different people from all different backgrounds came in,” she said. “There was so much variety. I loved seeing all the people.”