Multicultural celebration back for second summer

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This article was published 23/07/2024 (653 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Summer Multicultural Celebration returns for its second year at the Riverbank Discovery Centre this Saturday and organizers are working to make it a bigger affair this time around.

The celebration was launched last year by the organizers of the revived Westman Multicultural Festival as a warm-up before the festival returned for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have more performance groups performing,” said Gautam Srivastava, the secretary for the festival’s organizing committee. “It should be quite diverse and exciting. There’s more food trucks, there’s more vendors.”

Entrance to the celebration is free, with vendors charging for food and cultural items. The event starts off at 10:45 a.m. with opening remarks and a land acknowledgement, and the last performance will end at around 9:30 p.m.

Srivastava said that following the festival’s return, some groups reached out to inquire about participating in the celebration as a stepping stone to the next edition.

“Last year, we had less pavilions than we had before the pandemic and so we’re definitely hoping that more cultural groups can get organized and come forward to host pavilions in ’25,” he said.

For instance, there wasn’t a Scotland pavilion at the festival, but a Scottish group is set to perform at the Fusion Credit Union Stage during the summer celebration.

As of Monday afternoon, the schedule listed performances from seven groups: Scotland, India, Mauritius, El Salvador, Philippines, Ukraine and the Hispanic Association of Manitoba Inc. (HAMI).

Srivastava is also helping arrange the performances put on by the Indian group, which he said will involve bhangra dancing showcasing young local performers, including one who was featured on an Explore Manitoba magazine cover last summer.

While Environment and Climate Change Canada’s seven-day forecast for Brandon wasn’t forecasting rain as of Monday afternoon, Srivastava said the event is scheduled to take place rain or shine as the stage is covered, the food trucks can still operate in the rain and a big tent will be set up for the performers.

Former mayor Dave Burgess, the chair of the organizing committee, said it’s been smoother to organize the celebration this time around, which he partially attributed to the last year’s success.

While he didn’t hear complaints last year, Burgess said there were long lineups for food and he’s hoping the extra food trucks will help meet the demand.

He said they estimated between 4,000 and 6,000 visitors during last year’s event, with many people staying around for several hours.

“We’re ready for more,” Burgess said. “But even just the same number would be an absolute success. If there’s more, that’s even better.”

A full list of food trucks and a final performance schedule is still being finalized. Burgess said the complete information will be posted on the festival’s social media pages as well as gotothepavilions.com.

Burgess said preparations for the next multicultural festival are underway. This year, he said there was a lot of competition for event space as a lot of people were booking weddings post-COVID.

“We have a lot more venues pre-booked ahead of time now,” he said. “We’ll have different cultures that couldn’t put on a pavilion last year, so it’ll be a bigger event … The Scottish, for example — they need a large venue and they just could not get their hands on a booking.”

Funds taken in by the various cultural groups during the celebration will help cover future events, with other funding coming from the federal government and the City of Brandon.

This year, Burgess said he’s looking forward to trying some of the food options since he was so busy last year he didn’t have the chance.

“Having it as our second year, we’re more confident of what we’ve got in place,” he said.

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