If the residents of Onset thought the Blues Festival was big, the Cape Verdean Festival must have seemed like the World’s Fair.

People came from all over the United States to celebrate this year’s Cape Verdean Festival in Onset Village Saturday afternoon. Though the festival began at 12 p.m., Onset Cape Verdean Festival Association President Mike Roderick said he estimated there were already just under 15,000 people milling about the festival grounds by 1:30 p.m.

“When you go [a street over], you are going to see generation after generation of people – a lot of people are from California, Las Vegas,” Roderick said. “The vendors are from everywhere. We have vendors from just about every state.”

Association Correspondent Secretary, and former President Deneen Rose said the festival held a new layer for her this year, as she recently returned from a trip to Praia, the capital island Cape Verde. She said visiting the country and seeing the poverty in which its people live was a “very emotional” experience, especially when she realized that this is what her not-so-distant ancestors came from.

“Here in America, we have a lot of things that people don’t understand are given to us,” Rose said. “I have pictures on my phone of kids five, six, eight years old, who are washing clothes on washboards.”

Rose said the visit changed the way she sees herself and the Onset Cape Verdean community.

“I respect my culture more, because I didn’t know too much about Cape Verde before,” Rose said. “When you see it, and … come home, you don’t take things for granted.”

Rose said the visit also prompted her to think about what she and her fellow Cape Verdeans could do to help their home island.

“I have a friend here from California – … whatever T-shirts [we] don’t sell, he wants to send them over to Cape Verde,” Rose said.

Roderick said there were over 90 vendors at the festival, 20 of whom sold traditional Cape Verdean food. Musical artists also serenaded the crowd with a mix of native Cape Verdean music and inspired tunes.

Mamie Trueheart of Connecticut, said it was only her second year at the festival, but she was already planning on coming back the following year.

“I enjoy it so much!” Trueheart said. “I love the music … and the food! All the different types of food.”

Roderick said he couldn’t keep his hands off all the delicious dishes at the festival – particularly gufong, a kind of fried cornbread – but his favorite part of the celebration was seeing the Cape Verdean culture passed on to younger generations.

“A lot of kids don’t respect their culture, because they don’t know it, so this helps to teach them,” Roderick said. “You’ve got to have that respect taught to you. You’ve got to appreciate where you came from, and where you are going.”