A flyer for the upcoming Columbus Suhoor Festival on Friday. Credit: Courtesy of Rahma Abdullahi
In what might be the usual quiet hours of the night, Columbus’ International Mall will soon transform into the city’s first-ever Suhoor Festival.
On Friday between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m., local food and retail vendors will fill 1780 Morse Road alongside hundreds of people celebrating suhoor, the pre-dawn meal prior to the beginning of the daily fast during Ramadan.
Ramadan is the Muslim holy month marked by daily fasting from dawn to sunset and ending with the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
A Suhoor Festival in Dearborn, Michigan, served as inspiration for a new version in Columbus, said Rahma Abdullahi, the community engagement director for the local chapter of the Muslim American Society and the event’s co-project manager.
Though Abdullahi initially thought Columbus’ Muslim community would be too small to host such an expansive festival, she looked toward Cleveland, Ohio, and its version of the festival. From there, she took it upon herself to reach out to the Cleveland team and begin the planning process in early February 2024, with plans to schedule the event for the end of March.
“Especially because it was so last minute,” Abdullahi said. “I was thinking, ‘Is this possible?’”
Abdullahi said the Suhoor Festival is her passion project, with part of the festival’s proceeds going toward the construction of the society’s new youth center, its expansion and new opportunities she hopes to see like youth events and collaborations with other organizations.
All of which, she said, are causes dear to her heart.
The rest of the event’s proceeds will be donated to Columbus’ chapter of the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund and the Sudanese American Physicians Association, according to the festival’s Instagram page.
“I think this Ramadan is a very tough one for all of us, just because we understand the stuff that’s happening in both of those countries, especially in Palestine, and seeing the consistent videos of people in Palestine not being able to even enjoy Ramadan or being able to have food, it’s just been very heartbreaking,” Abdullahi said. “We also want to consistently be able to do anything we can to help those places, Inshallah [God willing].”
Bahja Ali, the festival’s other co-project manager, agreed. She said it is crucial for the event to be connected to a larger social cause.
“I think we’d be remissive if there wasn’t a cause behind it,” Ali said. “Especially right now, it would be a disservice to myself and the community if we didn’t give back.”
Alpha Lambda Mu, a Muslim-interest fraternity at Ohio State, is one of the event’s collaborators, ALM founder and president Sarim Siddiqui said. He foresees the event being a creative outlet for members of Columbus’ diverse culinary and arts scenes.
Much of the festival’s marketing has been tailored toward Ohio State students, and the event’s planning team has reached out to several on-campus Muslim organizations for partnerships and collaborations, Siddiqui said. These organizations include the Muslim Students Association, the Arab Student Union, Students for Justice in Palestine and more.
“It’s a celebration for Columbus to get together during the holy month of Ramadan and celebrate our city while also getting closer together,” Siddiqui said.
Ali said she has been particularly interested in planning this event to encourage more community engagement among Muslims and non-Muslims in Columbus, especially during a time when many may be intimated to do so due to the contentious political climate.
“This is an opportunity for non-Muslims to participate in Ramadan, or learn a little bit more about Ramadan and all the flavors of the Muslim countries,” Ali said. “This would be a great opportunity to connect with people who maybe felt out of reach for you, in a very low-stake situation.”
Abdullahi says one of the society’s core missions is increasing the diversity of attendees at Muslim-based events, and the upcoming festival is no different.
“I always say food really brings people together. From different cultures, from different backgrounds, one thing that we all love and look forward to is food,” Abdullahi said. “This type of event really brings everybody from different backgrounds all together in one place.”
In past years, suhoor festivals have been held in cities such as Dearborn, Dallas and New York. Since then, the festival has been adopted by more cities, with Atlanta and Columbus hosting for the first time this Ramadan.
“It shows the growth of which we are starting to get into — a comparison of Texas, which is such a big thing because Texas is a very big Muslim community,” Siddiqui said. “It’s a great feeling.”
Abdullahi said she hopes this festival will be a way for Columbus to engage its Muslim community similarly to how Dearborn and Dallas have done in the past.
“This is an event that is very different to our community, a lot of people have never been exposed to it ever,” Abdullahi said. “We hope to make this a regular thing, not just Suhoor Fest, but other projects that bring the community together just like this one.”
The Columbus community’s support for the event thus far has been especially exciting, Ali said.
“The community’s response has been very positive,” Ali said. “I expected it to be positive, and I am just happy that it is even more positive than I already expected.”
More information about the event, along with a list of vendors, partners and collaborators, can be found on the local festival’s Instagram page.
