This year the Tacoma Moon Festival serves as the opening event of Tacoma Community House’s “Welcoming Week,” an annual program started in 2012 by Welcoming America, a nonprofit leading a movement of inclusive communities becoming more prosperous by ensuring everyone belongs, including immigrants. During Welcoming Week, organizations and communities bring together neighbors of all backgrounds to build strong connections and affirm the importance of welcoming and inclusive places in achieving collective prosperity. The 2024 Tacoma Moon Festival puts a special focus on Tacoma’s Mexican and Latinx communities and traditions alongside those of our AAPI communities. Seattle’s Tlalokan brings the splendor and power of Mexico’s indigenous Anahuac dance and music; Tacoma’s own Sabor Flamenco performs Spanish and Cuban Flamenco dance; and the youthful Mariachi Almanueva and Mariachi de Pacifico de PLU combine to demonstrate the embrace of this joyous Mexican music by the next generation. Chinese culture will bookend the festival with the Mak Fai Lion Dance Association opening the festival at 1 pm and the Hwa Sheng Chinese Opera Club closing it from 6-6:40pm with performances in full makeup and costume of arias from famous scenes of Chinese Opera. In between, other beloved Tacoma groups include the Karisma Dancing Group showcasing contemporary Vietnamese dance, Cambodian Classical and Folk Dance of the Northwest, and Guma Imahe presenting the song and dance traditions of the indigenous Chamorro people of the Mariana Islands in the Pacific.