A festival celebrating unity of different cultures is on in Halifax.
The Mosaic Music Festival kicked off with an acrobatic troupe, followed by a Caribbean soca dance performance.
Festival attendee Ariel Boulos-Callias, founder of fitness program SocaCize, says the dance represents “life, happiness, love.”
“It’s such a joyful music, soulful dance that bringing it to Halifax, and bringing it to the public just kind of warms my heart,” said Boulos-Callias.
The festival was founded on the idea of celebrating each other’s cultures and showcasing different traditions.
“The ability to understand each other’s culture will then help bring us together,” said Boulos-Callias.
Mosaic Festival founder Ifeanyi Emesih said to a “beautiful city,” the culture festival brings a bit “more flavour.”
“We see a lot of people coming from different parts of the world,” Emesih said.
“So, we wanted to make sure that they can feel at home by identifying their own culture here.”
Like Emesih, festival volunteer Jerisa Haque hopes those who can take in the performances feel inspired to embrace and connect with cultures beyond their own.
Haque, a community manager with My East Coast Experience, said people can share their culture with others through art, music and food.
“I think art, and music, and dance, is a particularly impactful way because it doesn’t really have a language, you know, you just feel it,” said Haque.
She said sharing her south Asian culture is rewarding.
“I’ve been here for five years now and from when I first came to now, wow, it’s like an explosion,” Haque said.
“Even just walking on the waterfront boardwalk you can see more diverse populations and I still think it has ways to go, and events like this is a great way to really see the visible diversity in the city.”
Events are on all afternoon into the evening on the waterfront.
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