Multicultural celebration taking shape

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This article was published 07/07/2023 (1163 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nine cultural groups will be performing on stage later this month as part of the Summer Multicultural Celebration at the Riverbank Discovery Centre, according to event chair and former mayor Dave Burgess.

The free July 29 celebration is intended as a stepping stone toward bringing back the Westman Multicultural Festival, which hasn’t been held since 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic putting the 2021 and 2022 editions on ice.

Originally known as the Lieutenant Governor’s Winter Festival, the event featured pavilions set up across the city to showcase different cultures and their food.

Festival secretary Gautam Srivastava told the Sun last November that a lot of Brandon’s cultural groups had not met up in some time.

It was decided that bringing the full three-day festival back this year would be too soon, but creating a free summer event would help reintroduce the concept and help draw in new volunteers and participants.

Speaking to the Sun on Thursday, Burgess said Métis, Salvadoran, Indian, Irish, Jamaican, Filipino, Scottish and Ukrainian groups will be doing cultural performances at the event.

With the opening ceremony starting at 9:45 a.m. and the event running until 10 p.m., the intent is to have each group perform twice to give attendees a chance of seeing everything.

On top of that, six food vendors will be set up on the grounds along with other pieces of entertainment and booths.

“We’ve got just a huge amount of people that are pitching in and kind of revamping what they’re doing and getting all of their cultural groups involved,” Burgess said. “It’s expanding almost weekly now, all the people that are involved. It’s heartening so many came together on this.”

He praised the groups involved, as well as Westman Immigrant Services for pitching in to get the celebration organized in a fairly short time.

Though registration for vendors and performances for the summer event have closed, Burgess said there are still opportunities for people to volunteer either with a cultural group or for the event as a whole.

Planning is still going on for the festival’s return next year, and it is still possible to register for that event. Burgess said he expects more than the nine groups participating this summer to be involved in next year’s festival.

“I think they’ve missed not being able to have this and be able to showcase their different cultures,” Burgess said.

“I think there’s a lot of pride in being able to share the cultures, the foods, the entertainment and their customs. This all started back in 2004 because we had so much expansion of all the different cultures, and I think it’s even more important now than it was back in 2004. Our expansion of population and the diversity of our population is growing even more.”

Though the festival’s website at gotothepavilions.com is currently just a placeholder image advertising the summer celebration, Burgess said it will soon be updated with more information about the upcoming events.

He said either keeping an eye on that page or the Westman Multicultural Festival’s Facebook page would be the best way to learn more about the events as they approach.

For those who are interested about participating or volunteering for the events, Burgess said they can either send a message through the Facebook page or email him at burgessdavek@gmail.com.

» cslark@brandonsun.com

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