A 40-acre farm on Buffaloe Road in Knightdale is trading its petting zoo and meadows for stage lights and food trucks this Saturday, as the inaugural Live At Present Arts and Music Festival brings a full day of performances, cultural showcases and a charitable cause tied to a deadly disaster overseas. Organizers expect roughly 3,000 people to pass through Haven Farm for the event, which runs from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and is aimed largely at Triangle-area professionals and families between 25 and 45.
The festival was founded by immigrants from Nepal who wanted to give back to the North Carolina community that welcomed them, according to CBS17. Organizer Yubak Karki invited locals to attend with family and friends, and co-organizer AJ Bhattarai told the station the festival can support victims in Nepal by participating in causes like this one. The station reports the event is billed as an inaugural festival focused on community connections and showcasing local talent, featuring emerging artists, local vendors and culinary entrepreneurs.
Festival proceeds carry real weight this year. Organizers say the event will donate proceeds to widowed military families and to people affected by recent flooding in Nepal, per the station’s report, though the exact split has been described differently across materials — some promotional pages cite 10% of overall proceeds going to widowed military families, while more recent announcements put the figure at 20% of proceeds benefiting both military families and Nepal flood relief combined, according to information published on the event’s own sponsor page.
A Disaster That Reshaped the Cause
The Nepal relief effort responds to a catastrophe that unfolded less than two weeks before the festival. On August 26, a Himalayan glacial collapse triggered flash floods that killed more than 1,300 people and left nearly 5,000 missing, according to UN News. UN officials called it Nepal’s deadliest natural disaster since the 2015 earthquake, a scale of loss that gives the festival’s fundraising component an unusually urgent backdrop…