{"id":13975,"date":"2016-04-20T14:09:48","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T18:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=13975"},"modified":"2016-04-27T11:09:16","modified_gmt":"2016-04-27T15:09:16","slug":"producer-pulls-out-of-planned-multicultural-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/producer-pulls-out-of-planned-multicultural-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Producer pulls out of planned multicultural festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dance in the Park has been an annual mainstay on the eve of Canada Day celebrations in \u201cCanada\u2019s Birthday Town,\u201d but this year the dance comes with a new twist celebrating Canada\u2019s \u2013 and Aurora\u2019s \u2013 cultural diversity.<\/p>\n

Or will it?<\/p>\n

Last week, Council discussed the details of a retooled event spearheaded by Ranji Singh, whose foundation organizes the Town of Newmarket\u2019s South Asian Showcase, and a similar multicultural festival set for East Gwillimbury on July 3. <\/p>\n

The event, according to a report from Al Downey, Aurora\u2019s Director of Parks and Recreation, will feature live bands, dancers showcasing Korean, Chinese and Russian traditions, local arts and sports organizations, food vendors providing traditional and exotic fare, interactive components, surrounded by d\u00e9cor designed by area youth based on Chinese lanterns. <\/p>\n

But the Town will have forge ahead with the event on its own after Mr. Singh pulled out of the event.<\/p>\n

His decision to withdraw from the planned \u201cDance in the Park Celebrates Cultural Diversity\u201d came on the heels of a contentious Council discussion last week questioning several components of the event unrelated to the program Mr. Singh\u2019s group was offering, including timing and location of the event.<\/p>\n

Council called for a further report due back April 26 looking into holding the Multicultural Festival earlier in the day to be more family friendly, but some of the suggested changes didn\u2019t jive with Mr. Singh\u2019s vision, according to Aurora CAO Doug Nadorozny.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe felt that some of the changes that were being made aren\u2019t consistent with the style of event he was trying to put on and he was trying to leverage other events he was trying to put on and he felt the differences that with the differences that were emerging that it would be better if he didn\u2019t look after this event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to rely on his expertise and some of the momentum he had with other events, but staff are quite capable of picking it up from here and we are moving forward to plan the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Singh referred all questions regarding his future involvement in such a festival to the Town\u2019s Parks and Recreation Department.<\/p>\n

Dance in the Park Celebrates Cultural Diversity is, at press time, still set to take place at Town Park on June 30. Piggybacking on an existing event is a good way to lay the initial foundation of a new tradition, said Mr. Downey.<\/p>\n

Not all Councillors, however, agreed with the concept \u2013 particularly Councillor John Abel.<\/p>\n

Councillor Abel offered frustration, saying he felt he wasn\u2019t kept in the loop over where things stood with the Festival, which was brought forward through a notice of motion last year from Councillor Harold Kim. Councillor Abel said he presented staff with the opportunity to use Magna\u2019s Hoedown tent for the event in September, but requests for updates on the offer were rebuffed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been constantly asking for some information on the parameters of putting an event under the tent and until I received this report here I have been given no response,\u201d said Councillor Abel. \u201cI have a lot of concern with this going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, with the budget for the event already set by Council last year, Mr. Downey said it was the practice of staff to start planning. Councillor Kim, he added, was the \u201cCouncil Champion\u201d for the event and was kept in the loop over how things were progressing. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt this was going to give us the best chance of success in 2016,\u201d said Mr. Downey, noting there are benefits in having this event near a holiday like Canada Day and using a venue as expansive as the Hoedown Tent for a first-year event was not necessarily a \u201cguarantee for success.\u201d
\nStill, some Councillors were unconvinced, requesting the further report.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was expecting a report back to Council before we made any decision on this,\u201d said Councillor Wendy Gaertner. \u201cThe June 30 dance has been a tradition in Aurora for so many years and I don\u2019t think we want to mess with that and I hope that we wouldn\u2019t. We are trying to get the newer parts of Aurora into Town Park and it would be great to have a multicultural festival in Town Park and get the newer areas into the Park. That would be my choice, but not on June 30th.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillors, particularly Paul Pirri, pondered whether the Magna Tent would even be in place after the company moves its headquarters to King, a possibility also considered by Mayor Dawe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI quite like the idea of having it in Town Park,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the wonderful thing I have always expressed is a desire for us to make sure we do bring people to old Aurora and, at the same time, I think we need to bring people from the west side of Town to the east side of Town.\u201d
\nNevertheless, Councillor Abel was undeterred.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea was if you can\u2019t bring Mohammed to the mountain, bring the mountain to Mohammed,\u201d he said \u201cWe\u2019re trying to engage the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ranji Singh has pulled out of Aurora’s planned “Dance in the Park Celebrates Cultural Diversity” after Councillors called for changes to the June 30 event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3Dp","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-09 11:12:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13975\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}