Not-for-profit organisation Alliance Française de Newcastle will appear at the festival for the first time, bringing a French flavour to the event.

Charlene Bonneaud from the Alliance was so impressed after attending the festival as a visitor last year, she wanted to get involved as a participant.

“I really loved the community spirit and discovering all the cultures,” she said.

“Riverlights is a really great thing.”

And those features of the festival are what Ms Bonneaud is most looking forward to this year.

The French cultural village will be alongside the Afghani and Chinese displays at the festival.

“There’s really different cultures all very close to each other,” she said.

“The French culture is known here in a way.

“This is a great way to connect with lesser known cultures.”

The French cultural village will include traditional food and activities.

Ms Bonneaud said, surprisingly, French and Australian landscapes and scenery were quite similar to each other, so one of the activities will be to pick which landscape belongs to which country.

Another activity will be to find the English equivalent of typical French expressions using images.

Ms Bonneaud, who moved to Australia from France five years ago, said the alliance was a great way to connect with other people through her culture.

“It’s so great to be able to celebrate your own culture,” she said..

“It’s a part of my identity.

“There are so many people interested in learning about other cultures.”

She said she couldn’t wait to see people’s reactions and expressions when they came to her stall.

French is one of 24 cultures that will be represented through 20 cultural villages, food tastings, performances, games, traditional arts, crafts and more at the event.

Riverlights is on in The Levee, Central Maitland from 4-9.30pm Saturday, February 10.

For further information about what’s happening at the festival visit www.maitlandriverlights.com.au.