It was an adventurous Saturday in Springfield, whether you were kayaking down Buck Creek or - in the case of Kristi Sullivan - trying saag paneer for the first time.

“I’d never tried Indian food,” the Springfield resident said while hanging out at CultureFest. “It’s wonderful.”

The globally minded downtown festival has become the place locally for people to sample special cuisine.

“I had curry fear,” Sullivan confessed, explaining how she always thought Indian food would be too hot.

As it turns out, she said, it was just right.

It was indeed hard Saturday to judge what was more perfect — the chicken tikka masala or the weather.

And, with so much going on throughout the city, good weather was a must.

Not far from CultureFest, which annually draws upwards of 10,000 to City Hall Plaza, kayakers and canoers were racing downstream as part of the Buck Creek Bash.

Now in its second year at the Eco Sports Corridor near the Springfield Museum of Art, the celebration of adventure sports — whitewater rafting, biking and bouldering — kicked off with a four-mile race to the museum from the C.J. Brown Reservoir.

“Pretty cool,” Clark County resident Steve Morris observed as he watched more than a dozen kayakers make their way across the reservoir in the first leg of the race. “They’re dedicated.”

The kayakers had reason to haul it across the reservoir, then down the creek.

“See you at the beer truck,” one of them shouted back to the others as he ran ashore.

Gary Wolboldt, a Clark County resident, has found himself kayaking several times a week ever since the creation of the local whitewater park.

“It’s one of the neatest outdoor things they’ve done, besides the bike path,” said Wolboldt, taking a breather from paddling across the reservoir.

He explained how kayaking is a good workout — and a good workout will be needed if you took in all that CultureFest had to offer.

Jared Taylor, a teacher at Simon Kenton Elementary, was helping his son, Jake, eat some Mexican food. That is, after they’d both just eaten Indian food.

“That’s what CultureFest is all about,” Taylor said jokingly. “It’s that multisensory approach to CultureFest.”

The event isn’t just about food, although that’s the big draw for many.

For Avtar Singh, it’s a chance to talk to people about his Sikh heritage.

“I’m proud to be telling people about our culture,” Singh, a Springfield resident, said.

Singh has set up a booth at CultureFest ever since it began in 1997, and it’s become a place for him and other area Sikhs to dispel myths about their background.

“This is the right place to do it,” said Piara Singh Sembhi, a Troy resident.

Hands down, their turbans are the top source of questions, Sembhi said.

“Sometimes, they mistake you as a Muslim,” Sembhi said, noting how Osama bin Laden was always pictured wearing a turban. “We have nothing in common with that religion.”

It was Linda Harrah, of Springfield, who perhaps summed up CultureFest best.

“It’s just nice,” she said, “to see everybody together getting along.”