Multicultural event returns in scaled-down form

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This article was published 18/01/2024 (807 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Westman Multicultural Festival is back for the first time since 2020, but with half the number of pavilions featured in previous years.

A total of six pavilions will open their doors in venues across the city to share culture, food and entertainment for a three-day event, Feb. 8-10, though three of the pavilions will only be open for two days of the festival.

The six pavilions featured this year will be Mexico, Ukraine, Philippines, Mauritius, India and El Salvador. The kickoff ceremony will take place on Feb. 8 at the El Salvador pavilion.

Former Brandon mayor Dave Burgess is chairing the committee that is bringing back the event. He said there were other groups that wanted to participate, but since the decision to put on the full festival again was made not that long ago, some groups were not able to find the space they needed.

“We had so many challenges, with everything starting up again,” Burgess said. “All of the halls weren’t able to be booked well in advance, like we normally would. And there’s been just a backlog of weddings and other events that competed for those spaces.

“I’m sure in the future you’ll see more pavilions. There’s even new cultural groups in Brandon that are certainly wanting to get their own pavilion set up as well,” he added.

Gautam Srivastava, an organizer of the India pavilion and member of the Westman Multicultural Festival committee, said venues were sparse and cut down the days they could be open. It was even more challenging for the India pavilion, as its popularity had them looking for an even bigger space this year.

“We were at the North End Community Centre for the first year, but our numbers were super crazy. Our next few iterations were at the Dome Building at the Provincial Exhibition. But we’ve gotten even bigger, and we’re at the Imperial Ballroom at the Victoria Inn. We’ll be running Friday and Saturday … because the Imperial Ballroom was booked for the Thursday,” Srivastava said.

The Philippines and the Mauritius pavilions will also only run on the Friday and Saturday.

Running all three days of the event are the Ukraine, Mexico and El Salvador pavilions.

Burgess said the festival committee measured public interest in the return of the festival last July with a one-day cultural event at the Riverbank Discovery Centre. It was such a big hit, with up to 6,000 people attending, that the committee decided Brandonites were ready for the full enchilada again — or perogy, if you prefer.

“We do have it planned to do the one-day event again this summer,” Burgess said. “It was so popular that we’re not only going to have the February event, but we’ll also have the one-day event in the summertime as well. And that’s already booked for July 27 at the Riverbank Discovery Centre.”

All the pavilions will have entertainment, food and drink, and cultural displays. To make the weekend extra sweet, the pavilions are free to attend and because most of them are licensed, Brandon Transit will offer free transportation between pavilions.

“The event is free. We’ve always maintained that is what our directive wanted to be. Really, to get all of the cultures, have fun together and just enjoy the community, and also just getting to know each other that much better,” Burgess said.

To make the pavilions run smoothly, they are in need of volunteers.

Carlos Munoz, an organizer of the Mexico pavilion, said there are only two Mexican families who are putting on the pavilion and they need a lot of volunteers.

“We are very, very small — I will say two families or three,” Munoz said. “We are putting together everything from our own expenses and our own money to make this happen. But we need to have volunteers and the support from the community to make this happen. Because we cannot do it without that. I need at least 30 volunteers. So whatever the person wants to help with, from the kitchen, from security, cleaning, everything is a huge need.”

Call Munoz at 306-209-0389 to volunteer.

The Mauritius pavilion needs volunteers as well. Contact Kerselin Fumier through the Mauritius Cultural Association on Facebook or Westman Immigrant Services to volunteer.

The Westman Multicultural Festival originally started as the Lieutenant Governor’s Winter Festival in 2004, when Burgess was in his first term as mayor of Brandon.

“When they asked, I didn’t have to even think about it. I was very pleased to help out and get it started again. It’s just one of those ones that I really enjoyed and was so successful, the way it just exploded in popularity. It’s one of those ones that you just really have fun doing,” Burgess said.

At one point, the festival had grown to 11 different cultural pavilions.

» khenderson@brandonsun.com