GETTING THINGS DONE

July 4, 2019 · 0 Comments

By Mayor Tom Mrakas

At this week’s Council meeting, members considered a motion put forward by Councillor Kim to have the Aurora Food & Culture Festival be declared as an “event of Town significance and to provide funding to an upset limit of $5,000.”

The motion was approved (the first part of the motion was approved unanimously and the second part for the funding was approved 5-2 with Councillor Gallo and Gaertner opposed). This new event will form part of a weekend of multi-cultural events. It will be held on Friday, September 6, the evening before the Town’s Multicultural Festival.

Over the past four months, Councillor Kim and I have been working with and meeting government officials from Barbados. We talked about enhancing the multicultural festival that would showcase culinary arts, rum, and entertainment from the island of Barbados.

We are all excited that Tourism Barbados has secured – and is committed to bringing – Chef Creig Greenidge, also known as Chef Creig, who is the Executive Chef and Owner of CM Catering which is based in Barbados.

They are also committed to bringing mixologist Jamal Bowen to be the mixologist for the event. Jamal Bowen has a stellar track record in competitions both locally and globally, winning multiple awards including: several awards at NIFCA, Barbados Bartender of the Year 2006, three-time Angostura Mixmaster Champion in Barbados, Silver and Gold Medalist at Taste of the Caribbean, Regional Angostura Mixmaster Champion, 3rd Place Angostura Global Cocktail Challenge Finalist and Bartender of the Year at Taste of the Caribbean and Hall of Fame Inductee in 2012.

And in terms of entertainment? Elan Trotman (Saxophone) and Red Plastic Bag (Calypso) will provide fantastic entertainment for the weekend! Sax-Man Elan Trotman has quickly become one of the fastest rising stars in jazz with over 15 Billboard topping radio singles and Red Plastic Bag (Calypso) have thrilled audiences throughout the Caribbean, USA, Canada, United Kingdom, China, Brazil, Australia, Germany and South Africa. He has performed at The Apollo Theatre NY, Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, Beacon Theatre NY, Lincoln Centre NY, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Bailey Music Hall Florida, Hammersmith Palais, London and Club Coconuts in Dublin, Ireland.

And to think that this is all coming to our Town!

What does the Town need to do? Well, this event will be in the Town Park and will work in partnership with Niagara College in the newly renovated Armoury to deliver the event as well as $5000 dollars for mostly marketing material.

We, of course, as a Town will have a full accounting and financials of the event to ensure where every dollar is spent.

This is an incredible opportunity for our Town to create an event that will encourage and engage our residents and celebrate the diversity within our community.

We will have people from all over York Region coming to this event and visiting our Town. This means more business for our local businesses. The fact that we have the country of Barbados committed to investing both their financial and cultural resources in our community is an opportunity we don’t want to miss!

I am looking forward to this event and for the strong relationship that will continue to grow between the beautiful country of Barbados and the Town of Aurora.