Florida FG Festival

[Mulboyne]

Sun-Sentinel: Visitors can enjoy Japanese culture

When Packy Bannevans was studying in Japan on an exchange program in the early 1990s, he wanted to learn more about Japanese culture and thought sumo wrestling would fit him well...
Bannevans will bring sumo wrestling demonstrations for the first time to a two-day festival at the Morikami Museum west of Delray Beach, next weekend. He'll teach about the history of sumo wrestling, the legends and some interesting facts. For example, sumo wrestlers traditionally don't wash their "mawashi," the 30-foot long piece of cotton cloth that is wrapped around their bottoms for support and some coverage. "It's thought they will wash out all the good luck from previous matches if they do that," Bannevans said...Kizzy Sanchez, events manager for the Morikami, saw Bannevans perform at JapanFest last year in Atlanta. "Packy was really a crowd-pleaser," she said. Also new this year is ZeRo TaiKo, a musical group from Orlando. The group is described as contemporary world beat fusion. It incorporates taiko, a Japanese musical form, with Cuban, African and Cajun influences. The Kyudo Society of Florida, from Gainesville, will teach about Japanese archery.

Oddly enough, googling for "Packy Bannevans" mostly brings up articles about how his wife went to a strip club for her "hen party".