The Educational Opportunity Program’s Asian Resource Center will host the annual Lantern Festival, a celebration of Asian culture and traditions, on May 10 from 5 to 7 p.m. on the Student Resource Building lawn.

The event will feature a lantern designing competition judged by a panel of student mentors and counselors. Other student organizations and the general community are welcome to participate in the contest, which will kick off the EOP’s Cultural Celebration Week.

According to Peter Voong, a fourth-year biology and psychology double major and ARC mentor, the event is aimed at more than just the Asian Pacific Islander community.

“We will engage the API community by having friendship games and collaborating together to create a successful event,” Voong said in an email. “It is important for students of different ethnicity to attend because they can learn about different cultures and help understand one another and where they are coming from. The main event of the lantern festival is the judging of the lanterns that different student organizations have prepared — to show how their lanterns represent their culture.”

EOP Program Coordinator Sharon Woodlief said people of all backgrounds can enjoy the festival’s food, raffles and cultural performances.

“The purpose is to create an amusing event in which anyone and everyone can learn something new, and even make new friends and be inspired to [build] an even stronger foundation to the communities that are already here at UCSB,” Woodlief said in an email.

According to Voong, the festival’s winner will have their name engraved on a trophy on display in the SRB.