Edmonton – Nothing represents the August long weekend in Edmonton quite like the Heritage Festival.
The 38th annual festival kicked off Saturday morning as a bigger and more diverse version than previous years. Sixty pavilions, representing 84 countries are at this year’s festival; that’s a substantial growth from six years ago when 39 countries were represented.
The growth at the annual festival represents the changing face of Edmonton’s community.
“It’s becoming much more visible. There are so many more opportunities to, for example, sample ethnic food in the restaurants and that translates into festivals such as this one,” says Executive Director Jack Little.
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For the first time, Columbia and Brazil have a pavilion at the Heritage Festival. Maria Moy is spending the festival preparing traditional Columbian and Brazilian cuisine. According to a 2011 Stats Canada survey, Canada is home to 6.8 million foreign-born residents. Moy is one of those residents. She moved to Canada 48 years ago and has witnessed major changes during that time.
“When I came to this country, it was zero. Zero food latin, zero latin people. Now we have music, school, university, people speak spanish, porteguese,” explains Moy.
The Heritage Festival is an opportunity for Moy to showcase some of the best qualities of her culture, and she says the response has been excellent.
“They say it’s wonderful to have Columbia and Brazil here.”
Jack Little hopes the festival’s message of embracing multiculturalism will spread beyond Edmonton and influence other communities.
“This is about the largest celebration of multiculturalism in one physical location in the world, and if we could put this thing on in little old Edmonton, can’t we kind of spread it out a bit.”
The Heritage Festival is about as big as it can get. Organizers say there’s simply no more room at Hawrelak Park for more pavilions, but there’s enough room for more people to enjoy the festival. Last year, it’s estimated 352,000 people attended the festival. Organizers are optimistic that number will be surpassed this weekend.
With files from Shannon Greer
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