A new festival shows off Monterey’s multi-lingual capabilities.

Last Saturday, the Naval Postgraduate School unlocked their campus and put on their annual International Day. And on Friday, May 8, the Defense Language Institute opens their own gates to invite the public to its annual Language Day.

Add another one.

This weekend, the first Language Capital of the World Cultural Festival visits Custom House Plaza, organized by a coalition including Fisherman’s Wharf Association, Monterey County Business Council, Monterey Peninsula College, Middlebury Institute of International Studies, The Japanese American Citizens League, Hellenic Cultural Institute, Monterey’s United Nations Association, the DLI, NPS and others.

The whole shebang begins with a 10am procession down Alvarado Street to Custom House Plaza on Saturday, where the culture comes as steady as a conveyor belt on both days. Sameera E Sharif, assistant professor at DLI, has assembled platoons of Korean fan dancers, Indian rajasthani and Bollywood dancers, modern Japanese singers (which, realistically, could mean many things), Italian tarantella dancers, Chinese tea ceremony performers, Spanish flamenco dancers, Pakistani bhangra dancers and more.

But why, when we already have two? Dino Pick, Monterey deputy city manager and head of the festival’s volunteer planning committee, came up with the idea to capitalize on a slogan that’s floated around for years but was recently trademarked: “language capital of the world.”

“The idea is to grow this into conferences involving foreign language education, trade shows concerning translation and other language and culture related businesses,” he says, “and more closely synchronizing [this] language and culture festival with MIIS, DLI, NPS. It’s like a hidden gem.”

A former Army colonel and Commandant of the DLI (2010-2014), Picks says the DLI alone accounts for 23 languages. Add those spoken at NPS, MIIS, CSU Monterey Bay, and translation businesses like Language Line Services, and it adds up to more credence.

There is an unsettling subtext for this attention to the bounty of foreign languages: “[Local military installations] have been on BRAC lists in the past,” Pick says. “We know the Pentagon has asked Congress for another round of closures.”

In other words: Monterey is going to celebrate its strengths as if its livelihood depended on it.

LANGUAGE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD CULTURAL FESTIVAL 10am-5pm Sat, 11am-5pm Sun, at Custom House Plaza, 20 Custom House Plaza, Monterey. Free. www.lcowfest.com.