Produced by the Museums at Union Station and now in its 11th year in its current format, the Ogden Living Heritage Festival will be held at the historic railroad hub on May 10 — recognized as National Train Day — from noon to 8 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public.

“Really, what we’re celebrating is the people who built our community into what it is today — a lot of them coming from the railroads but living and making a community here out of that experience,” Museum Administrator Hope Eggett told the Standard-Examiner.

Those roots run deep and include people originating from around the world, according to Eggett, who said that in the 1880s, roughly one in four Ogden residents were immigrants from foreign countries.

“Before the railroad came to Ogden, we were really pretty much just a farming community, primarily made up of LDS settlers,” Eggett said. “When the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869, suddenly we were the crossroads of the West. … That meant that a lot of workers, including Chinese populations, Japanese populations, Mexican-American populations, Greeks, Italians — all came here looking for opportunity.”

Performing at the festival will be the likes of Tutulli Ballet Folklorico and Highland Peaks Dance Studio, which will perform dances from around Mexico and the Scottish Highlands, respectively. This year, performances will be held outdoors on the front plaza, which will be populated by local artisans and vendors.

There will also be activities in the building’s grand lobby and elsewhere on the Union Station campus.

“We’re really hoping that everybody can experience all five senses here at the Union Station,” Eggett said. “There’ll be something for everybody.”

Eggett added that last year’s event drew an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 attendees.

Funding for the event is provided by Weber County RAMP, Ogden City and the Utah Division of Arts and Museums. For more information, go to https://www.ogdencity.gov/1633/Heritage-Festival/.