Multicultural Festival celebrates 50 years of bringing people together
KITCHENER — Lucia Harrison has headed up the KitchenerWaterloo Multicultural Centre for the past 18 years and one of her favourite events hosted by the organization is the annual Multicultural Festival, first held in 1967.
“I always enjoy the mood of the festival, the smell of the food, the music, the kids,” said the centre’s executive director. “It’s such an expression of the (diverse) community.”
The event takes place this weekend, Saturday and Sunday in Victoria Park, Kitchener.
“Local is very much a theme this year, local ethnic communities,” she said.
Some of the cultural groups entertaining on the main stage over the two-day, free festival will represent several European nations such as Ukraine, Bulgaria and Poland. There will also be Scottish country dancing, a folk dance group from Gujarat in the western part of India, Nepalese performers, Korean drummers, an Arabic cultural group performing traditional dances from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine, an Afghan group, a Latin dance group, a Caribbean steel band, several Chinese cultural groups, a Bangladeshi multi-instrumentalist, Irish dancers and closing out the festival on Saturday is Juno nominated singer, Alysha Brilla and her band the Brilltones.
The African/Jamaican band eKhaya closes the festival on Sunday night.
Folk artist Richard Garvey will also perform and the weekend will feature children’s activities as well as yoga for beginners and a community drumming circle with the First Nations group, Blue Sky Singers. Plus, there will be
ethnic food in the International Food Market and all sorts of crafts from around the world for sale.
As Harrison said, they are pulling out all the stops for this special 50th anniversary.
“Our goal for the festival is that, this is not a fundraiser, as long as we break even we’re happy but it gives the community a chance to raise money,” she said, noting many of the cultural groups represented have various charitable causes they support.
Harrison also noted people coming to the festival for the first time are awestruck by just how diverse Waterloo Region is, with more than 30 countries represented at this festival alone and most have their own cultural associations.
“I think it’s important that people realize how many similarities there are rather than differences,” she said.