The first-ever Cultural Connects Festival in Westlock was hosted downtown on June 7.
The festival featured performances and representation by people from many different countries and cultures, as part of 106 St. was closed for the festivities.
“There's definitely more diversity within the region. We've had a lot of newcomers coming to Alberta as well as Canada,” said Katie Robertson, executive director of the Westlock Community Foundation, who were the primary organizers of the festival. “We're very lucky and fortunate to see people moving here and wanting to be a part of this community and bringing their culture with them and memories to share with them.”
The festival began with a smudge blessing by Steve Ochiese, an Indigenous cultural connector from the Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society.
The performances began with Chinese lion dancers from the Edmonton Hung Mon Athletic Club. They continued the rest of the afternoon with Colombian salsa vocalist Diana Diaz, a spoken word dramatic storytelling by members of the African Caribbean Heritage Alliance, steel pan drumming by a Trinidadian steel pan orchestra, a Jamaican children’s dance performance, Filipino folk dancing, a cultural presentation from the Nigerian Cultural Association and a performance by Mexican violinist Melissa Garcia.
Vendors also represented their cultures in unique ways. These included handmade Indian textiles, African necklaces and Indigenous games which train hand-eye coordination.
Westlock Mayor Jon Kramer, Village of Clyde Mayor Charis Aguirre and Westlock County Reeve Christine Wiese all expressed their support for the festival.
“Instead of comparing other cultures to our own which often happens, there is something beautiful and special that happens when we come as a student and engage in other cultures, expressions, styles, languages and people groups,” said Wiese. “The posture of a learner allows us to enter into another world, even in a small way. Every people group I believe carries beautiful treasures that are found within their culture. I see each people group as a puzzle piece in our world. We need each other and together, the strengths and beauties of our cultures can create a beautiful tapestry that can never be achieved on our own.”
The festival landed on a very busy day for the town as the same day included the vintage tractor show at the Westlock Agricultural Society and the Westlock Gators swim club meet at the aquatic centre. This combined with the strong winds throughout the day created some concerns from festival organizers surrounding attendance, but these fears were quickly alleviated.
“We've seen over 1,000 people come through here today so I think that that's something that was a little bit unexpected for us,” said Robertson. “We thought there would just be around 500 people so for us to see over 1,000 people come through here is really, really exciting. We know from feedback we've already received from people in the community that they are just so grateful that there's this opportunity for them to be able to celebrate the culture they bring from wherever they've moved from and then also to be able to teach, share and connect with other people. It’s been a really special day.”
