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Our local melting pot will bubble with activity Downtown today and Sunday during Tucson Meet Yourself, the annual food, folk art, music and dance event.

Festivities began Friday, but there's still lots to do — and especially lots to eat.

Our idea is to put politics, the election and the economy on the back burner and take a big bite out of the Old Pueblo this weekend at Tucson Meet Yourself.

Events center around the Presidio, north of Pennington Street at Church Avenue. Look for some 100 ethnic-music performances on stages north of City Hall, west of the County Courthouse and in the plaza of the Joel D. Valdez Main Library. A Church Avenue stage near its intersection with Alameda Street will host youth-oriented music.

There's lots more to do.

Sample cuisines at 30 ethnic-food booths. Watch 40 or so folk artists demonstrate their techniques. Learn from food demonstrations given by professional chefs and cultural groups.

Or wander over to Church Avenue to take a look at the Low Rider Car Show and Bike Show organized by The Dukes Car Club.

Performances are scheduled by musicals groups playing African, Apache, bagpipe, Brazilian, Chinese, drum, fiddles, Filipino, Mexican, Navajo and Hawaiian music, among others.

Look for lion dancers and martial-arts demonstrations, too. The weekend will end on Sunday with a Tohono O'odham circle dance.

Go hungry or eat a light breakfast or lunch: You will have a chance to try the foods of 22 ethnicities, including African-American, Chilean, Filipino, Greek, Indian, Italian, Laotian, Mexican, Turkish, Native and Vietnamese.

A cooking competition modeled on the "Iron Chef" television program was to run all day Friday and from 5-7 p.m. tonight at the food stage on the south side of the Presidio.

The cooking contest will feature the Catalina High School Girls Southwest and Pima Community College Boys Asian teams, according to the schedule. Judging is at 7 p.m.

Among the special events promised this weekend: face painting, "A" Mountain chalk painting, ghost stories, an international bake sale and children's games of Latin America organized by Alba Martinez of the University of Arizona Spanish and Portuguese Department.

Food, entertainment, education, all drawn from Tucson's multicultural community — all here this weekend.