It's going to be a weekend filled with art, dance, and culture from around Micronesia, as the Guam Micronesian Island Fair is set to take place this Friday, June 12 at the Joseph Flores Memorial Beach Park in Tumon. T-Galleria human resources director Catherine Gayle said, "GMIF has grown to be our region's premiere showcase of our culture, our food, and our arts."

Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the event which will feature a parade of island nations, as well as live art displays, cultural dancers, musicians, local farmers, a beach volleyball tournament, and family-friendly activities such as face painting and carabao rides. Guam Visitors Bureau general manager Nate Denight said, "Because we're going to be hosting FESTPAC next year we wanted to use Guam Micronesian Island Fair, which has kind of been Micronesia's FESTPAC to be the springboard to launching FESTPAC, so we really wanted to go all out with the opening ceremony."

The ceremony will feature roughly 200 Guam cultural dancers, something he says is just a taste of what's to come at next year's Festival of Pacific Arts. Gayle said, "We are extremely excited to be a part of FESTPAC, our regions, the Pacific's, our blue continent's premiere showcase of 27 island nations and their culture and arts. It's just going to be so exciting next year for our residents and for our visitors."

"Our entire Guam community of artisans is getting ready to demonstrate to the world and to our region what we have here locally, so all of them are excited to come and showcase a little bit of that," she added.

FESTPAC is one of the largest festivals in the region and is expected to bring visitors from around the world. Denight said, "Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga, all the different islands of the Pacific all the way to Papua New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand will all be here demonstrating their very unique and exciting cultures."

It will take place in Guam's capital city of Hagatna and will showcase a variety of art forms ranging from dancing and music to tattooing and canoeing. Media representatives from 6 Asian countries and Russia attended a GMIF press conference this morning, showing international interest in the event. GVB estimates its global media team will generate roughly $6.5 million worth of media exposure.

For more information on these events you can visit www.visitguam.com or www.guamfestpac2016.com.