The Association of Bangladeshi Students and Scholars announced it is putting on its biggest event of the year, the annual Bangladeshi Night on Oct. 30.

The event will take place in the Compton Union Building senior ballroom, said Md Monzurul Islam Anoy, doctoral student in chemical engineering and ABSS president.

“We usually try to do [Bangladeshi Night] in the fall in order to celebrate the Bangladeshi culture, the food and the music,” Anoy said.

Bangladesh, which borders various states of India, is a densely populated country with the spoken language being Bangla, or Bengali, according to Nations Online.  

He said there is a growing Bangladeshi community of around 110 students and non-students in the area, including Spokane and Moscow. 

People who attend Bangladeshi Night travel from different places such as California, Oregon or Seattle, said Mrittika Hasan Rodela, doctoral student in civil engineering and ABSS general secretary.

“I got to meet with people who I was friends with before, and now they’re living in different cities due to their job. Now they come to this event and enjoy our rich culture after a long time because here we don’t get to listen to our own music. Whenever we go to a restaurant, the music here is not of our language,” she said. 

Anoy said this event is an opportunity to showcase their culture to local students at WSU. 

“I have been asking my friends and asking my colleagues … to come to this program to know how the actual Bangladeshi people and the culture looks like. Not the whole idea, but even if I can give just a bit of a hint to say, ‘this is how we are, this is how we interact,” he said. 

Rodela said this will be a three-hour event followed by music from a DJ. There will be musical and dance performances as well as poetry recitations, which depict Bangladeshi culture. 

“There is also another main attraction, which is the food. We will be hosting a buffet dinner of the Bangladeshi cuisines for all the people who will be attending and performing,” she said. 

People of the Bangladesh community will be wearing traditional dresses, and music sung in Bengali will be played, she said.  

Depending on the performers themselves, the event’s program changes every year, Anoy said. 

“We have a new upcoming Bangladeshi student who really wants to do a dance, whether it is a classical dance, whether it is a hip hop dance, whatever he wants. So we are encouraging them, we are getting those exciting things and trying to showcase it,” he said. 

Anoy said tickets, which cost $12 for students, and $15 for non-students, will be sold on Oct. 27-28, and ABSS will be setting up a table at the CUB. Tickets will also be sold at a table outside of the senior ballroom, however, they may be sold out quickly. 

He said interested students or non-students can reach out to Anoy or anyone else from ABSS if they want tickets.