Venezuela had been experiencing a period with demonstrations, riots, attacks, and general civil unrest; during this time it was not uncommon for people to seek asylum in neighboring states.
[6][7] Venezuelan immigrants were perhaps initially best known for their cooking: for example, the Di Marcantonio family set up a food stall and received much media attention.
[8] They had fled their homeland due to a political, social, and economic crisis, and established a small stall where they offered typical Venezuelan dishes such as arepas and cachapas.
The festival displays the arepa as an iconic dish of the Cumanagoto indigenous identity and culture (inhabitants of Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela) and shows how they make the famous bread from corn.
Today it is a globally recognized gastronomic festival, attracting tourists and highlighting how arepa bread interrelates with the gastronomy in the country it takes place in.