{"id":24176,"date":"2019-07-04T18:12:31","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T22:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=24176"},"modified":"2019-07-04T18:12:40","modified_gmt":"2019-07-04T22:12:40","slug":"new-food-cultural-festival-this-september-gets-green-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/new-food-cultural-festival-this-september-gets-green-light\/","title":{"rendered":"New Food & Cultural Festival this September gets green light"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

A new Food & Cultural Festival will\ntake over Town Park this September after getting the go-ahead from Council last\nweek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Aurora Food & Culture Festival was\npitched by Councillor Harold Kim as a way to enhance the Town\u2019s existing\nMulticultural Festival and pick up where the now-defunct Multicultural Festival\nin Newmarket and Richmond Hill\u2019s Taste of the Hill left off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Operated by Sports Horizons Inc., the\nFestival will take place Friday, September 6, on the eve of Aurora\u2019s\nMulticultural Festival, and proponents say it will foster ties between Aurora\nand Barbados. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have been working with [Councillor\nKim] for some time now on how to expand our intercultural activities in our\ncommunity,\u201d said Sports Horizons\u2019 Ron Kellman, in his delegation to Council.\n\u201cLess than a week ago, we brought together twelve people from our community to\ndiscuss the advancement of interculturalism and the implementation of an event\nthat shoulders the existing multicultural festival the Town has implemented and\ngrown for many years. Our event had significant planning accomplishments and we\nwanted to see if it had the support of various cultures within the community,\nand we weren\u2019t surprised by the enthusiasm. We wish to operate an intercultural\nevent that brings various cultures together of varying purposes with the goal\nof exchanging ideas and cultural opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the event will largely take place at\nTown Park, some of the festivities will take place inside the adjacent historic\nAurora Armoury which, if construction deadlines are met, will be the public\ndebut for this long-awaited project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt will be a unique opportunity for up to\n200 people to experience a newly-opened venue, sample cultural food, beverages,\nexperience unique music from other cultures,\u201d said Mr. Kellman. \u201cWe\u2019re also\nworking closely with the Barbados Government to establish a gala evening on\nSeptember 7 to support specific local and regional cultural interests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Councillor Kim, the Festival\nhas been in the works since the late winter following meetings between Sport\nHorizons officials, Councillor Kim and Mayor Tom Mrakas. Following this\nmeeting, talks took place between the organizers and Barbados\u2019 Ministry of\nTourism and strong interest was found in the Caribbean. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is the kind of vision I had when I\nfirst [proposed] the Multicultural Festival three years ago,\u201d said Councillor\nKim. \u201cI was excited [about this opportunity], the Mayor was excited about it,\nthen the Prime Minister of Barbados came and did a Town Hall in Scarborough and\nwe had an opportunity\u2026to meet with her and her contingent. A lot of good\nconversation happened in terms of other partnering ideas. Last month, the\nConsul General from Barbados came up to visit us with her team and she\nreiterated her commitment to be involved with the food and culture event on the\nFriday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have committed tens of thousands of\ndollars with respect to bringing up their chef, Bajan dancers. They are\ninvesting in quite a bit bringing people over from Barbados for this event. We\nthought, let\u2019s give this a try and see if we can make it work independently of\nthe Town with some small support from the Town with respect to the licensing\nand the leasing of Town Park.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discussions have also taken place, he\nadded, with Niagara College\u2019s Canadian Food & Wine Institute, which is\nexpected to formally take over the Armoury space this September, for the\npurposes of food demonstrations and tastings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While questions were raised around the\ntable on Councillor Kim\u2019s last minute ask for $5,000 of public money to make\nthis event a reality (see page 12), Council members were largely enthusiastic\nabout the new festival and the benefits it is hoped to bring to the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a great opportunity,\u201d said Mayor\nMrakas. \u201cYou have a country that is willing to spend money to bring mixologists,\njazz players and all sorts of people to our community. This is an incredible\nopportunity to create actual tourism, to have people coming from all over the\nplace. [When the Consul General came] and saw all the sites like Niagara\nCollege, the Cultural Centre [she] was amazed by the beauty and heritage of our\nTown and thought this would be an incredible opportunity to bring Bajans to\nAurora and have them celebrate the uniqueness our Town is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I heard the Prime Minister speak\nabout how Bajans feel about their community and what it is all about, I see a\nlot of similarities between the Town of Aurora and Aurorans. It\u2019s that value\nand respect for our community. There is so much linkage, I think, between our\ntwo communities that it makes sense for us to do something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Michael Thompson was of a\nsimilar view, stating there is \u201ctremendous value\u201d in bringing this festival to\nAurora, a view echoed by Councillor Sandra Humfryes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am really excited about this additional day,\u201d she said. \u201cI think the\nTown needs more events like this. People are looking forward to these\nafter-hours and weekend ways to enjoy events like this with their families and\nfriends. It brings a community together.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new Food & Cultural Festival will take over Town Park this September after getting the go-ahead from Council last week.<\/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_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-24176","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\/p3D2k4-6hW","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 14:33:15","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\/24176","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=24176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}