Walk along Indianapolis streets or peek inside a few of the city's restaurants and shops, and you'll be hard-pressed on most days to find people of different cultures mingling.

That view, however, will change when the 2003 International Festival gets under way today with food, entertainment and cultural booths from Asia, Europe and Africa in the Expo Hall at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

"You walk in there and you realize that, 'Oh, my God, all of these people live here,'" said Susan McKee, festival chairwoman and second vice president of the Nationalities Council, the festival's host organization.

"Most people don't go outside of their comfort zone, but the festival entices people to step outside of that zone."

Although a fan of the festival's international cuisine ("You can actually eat your way around the world"), McKee, who is of Irish, Scottish, Swedish and Polish ancestry, says it's the cultural displays and entertainment that draw large crowds.

For example, two local Latvian folk dance troupes, Jautrais Solis and Jautrais Paris, have entertained audiences with dances and music from their homeland since the festival's inception in 1976.

"It's special to be part of the International Festival," said Guna Asons, director of Jautrais Solis, who has lived in Indianapolis since 1949. "I think it's important because you see so many different people there. You hear so many different languages. It's a place where we exchange ideas."

Both troupes, accompanied by the Estonian-Latvian Music Ensemble, will perform traditional and choreographed dances from 5:45 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. Saturday.

To prepare for this year's festival, members of Jautrais Solis (comprising older residents) have been practicing twice a week at the Latvian Community Center on the Westside. On a recent Monday, dancers arrived in traditional Latvian clothes from the country's various regions. Speaking in their native tongue -- some still aren't fluent in English -- dancers warmly greeted each before taking instruction from Asons.

At Asons' request, men and women found their partners and held hands while performing the intricate steps, twists and turns that make up the dances. Many of the dances tell a story, like the one about the maiden standing on a hill when she hears the townspeople say that she will forever be an old maid -- not knowing that she has already chosen someone to be her husband.

While on the hill, the maiden daydreams about her intended: "I shall invite him for a leisurely walk, speak of love, and I shall give him my hand and a golden ring." The two marry and live happily ever after.

Other dances are simply meant for fun, like the Pancake dance (Pankuku dancis), which Latvians borrowed from their Lithuanian neighbors. "We borrowed it because it's fun to do," said Asons.

Although rehearsals for the festival can be long and exhausting, members of Jautrais Solis don't complain because of the payoff.

"We enjoy the International Festival because we like teaching others the history and culture of Latvia," said Dzintra Caune, a 76-year-old who has performed with Jautrais Solis since the 1980s. A resident of Indianapolis since 1958, every summer for the past 14 years she has traveled back to Latvia.

Caune is not surprised by the warm welcome she and others receive at the festival.

"Indianapolis is accepting of people of other countries and cultures," said Caune.

At 3 p.m. Friday, the city will open its arms to another 150 people of different cultures during the festival's naturalization ceremony, which McKee says brings tears to the eyes of onlookers and new citizens.

"There's usually about a dozen people in tears," said McKee, who said many ask to put their citizenship on hold until the annual festival.

In addition to the entertainment, which also includes performances by the Mocko Jumbies (African stilt-walkers from St. Thomas), the Drums of West Africa, folk dancing from Indianapolis' Japanese, Chinese and Indian residents, and a parade of nations, the festival boasts an educational component.

With International Festival passports in hand, area schoolchildren will visit cultural booths to learn about the capital, language, currency and cultural activities of various countries represented. Once answers are obtained, passports will be stamped by the countries visited.

"The educational mission is the reason that we (put on the festival)," said McKee, who also believes the festival is the perfect place for families to spend time together. She said her children, now adults, grew up at the International Festival.

"It's always good to see the young parents pushing their kids in their strollers, because they'll grow up thinking that this is the norm, which it is," added McKee.

And, she said, Indianapolis has come a long way in that department.

"Even though Indianapolis has always been a diverse city, it hasn't always been good to be ethnic in Indianapolis. You have to remember that the Ku Klux Klan ran the state in the 1920s, and they weren't just against black people, they were against diversity," said McKee. "But it's the richness of the diversity that makes Indianapolis so great.

"And the festival is a celebration of that diversity in our city. It gives people a chance to reconnect with their roots."

Call Star reporter Shelby Roby-Terry at 1-317-444-6133.