News - National Multicultural Festival

Festival parade

Emily Nicola — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 23:43:05 +0000

Experience the colour and energy of the
Smartraveller Parade

A festival highlight each year, the festival parade is a vibrant showcase of culture, tradition, and community spirit. More than 50 groups take to the streets, bringing the festival to life with music, dance, and dazzling cultural dress from around the world.

Parade route and timing

The parade begins at 4pm, Saturday 8 February, outside the Canberra Museum and Gallery on London Circuit, making its way down London Circuit, turning onto Akuna Street, and finishing at Glebe Park.

View the parade route

Be part of the celebration

Join the crowds to cheer on the participants, take in the rich sights and sounds, and experience a joyful display of cultural pride. Whether you're there to support a particular group or simply to soak in the atmosphere, the parade is an unforgettable part of the festival.

2025 festival parade participants:

ACT Urdu Language School
African Australian Hunting and Drumming Group Inc
African Australians of the ACT
Ahwazian Association
Australia Mon Association Incorporated
Australia-China Economic and Cultural Promotions Inc
Australian Guangxi Friendship Association Inc
Bangladesh High Commission Canberra and Bangladesh Australia Association
Bendjo Academy
Bolivia Marka Dance Group
Brisas del Peru
Canberra Brass Inc.
Canberra City Band Inc
Canberra Dragon Dance
Canberra Eurosession
Canberra Filipino Community
Canberra Ukrainian Community
Colourful Clouds Chasing the Moon
Corazón Chileno
Cowboys & Cowgirls from Around the World
El Salvador Club in Canberra
Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia
Falun Dafa Association of Australia
FCAACT
Folk Group Bulgari
Grace Community Group
Hare Krishna Food for Life Inc
Indian Community
Italian Flag Throwing
Jambo Jamboree: African Extravaganza
Kokoloco Dance Studio
KUD Razigrana Makedonka
Mexbourne Dance Company
Mini Nepal in Australia
Momposina Colombian Dance Group
Ngunnawal Dance Academy
Prosperous Mountain Dragon and Lion Dance
Raio de Sol Canberra Community Samba Band
Representants of the Celtic Nations of Scotland and Wales
Rio Samba Shows
Sevdalinka Choir
Slovenian Australian Association
Só Samba Canberra
Tarpuy Peru
Ukrainian Association of Sydney
See you on Saturday!

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The 2025 National Multicultural Festival

372-admin — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 03:41:49 +0000

We are so excited to be back in 2025 from Friday 7 February to Sunday 9 February 2025!

2024 was a record breaking year, with an astounding 417,359 attendees!

We celebrated over 170 cultures, 300 performance groups, and 264 stalls, bringing joy and diversity to the city.

The festival generated an impressive $21.2 million in economic benefits and 33,940 visitor nights. Free public transport was a hit, with over 41,000 light rail boardings – double the usual weekend count!

A big thank you to all the volunteers, performers, stallholders, staff and you- our attendees, who made this celebration a success!

We’re thrilled to bring you another 3 days packed with vibrant performances, delicious food, and engaging activities in 2025.

Please note this is not the festival homepage. You can find the homepage here.

The post The 2025 National Multicultural Festival first appeared on National Multicultural Festival.

That’s a wrap on MultiCulti 2024

Emily Nicola — Thu, 09 May 2024 07:33:13 +0000

The 2024 National Multicultural festival took over Canberra’s CBD and Glebe Park for 3 fabulous days from 16 to 18 February.

The festival was a joyous celebration with 170 cultures represented and hundreds of thousands of people attending over the 3 days.

300 performance groups including 24 cultural showcases dazzled festival goers with hours of entertainment.

Meanwhile the 270 stallholders provided delectable delights from around the globe and a range of cultural workshops and cooking demonstrations meant there was something for everyone.

With large crowds, lots of people took advantage of the free public transport to travel to the festival and the new shuttle bus service made it a breeze to get around the festival site.

The iconic 700 metre long festival parade was once again a huge draw card for attendees and for the first time featured some four-legged friends who stole the show!

Check out the Friday, Saturday and Sunday programs from the 2024 festival to find your favourite performance.

We can’t wait to welcome you back in 2025. Be sure to subscribe for updates or follow us on Facebook or Instagram so you can be among the first to know about the 2025 festival.

The post That’s a wrap on MultiCulti 2024 first appeared on National Multicultural Festival.

Watch the iconic festival parade

Emily Nicola — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 23:44:00 +0000

The festival parade is one of the many highlights each year at the National Multicultural Festival.

It features music and dance performances, cultural dress from across the world, and is a chance for our multicultural communities to shine together.

The parade kicks off at 4 pm out the front of Canberra Museum and Gallery on London Circuit, heading down London Circuit and turning onto Akuna Street before ending in Glebe Park.

Get along to cheer parade participants and soak up the vibrant cultures from more than 50 groups!

If you're looking for someone in particular, the full list of groups is below in order of appearance in the parade.

2024 festival parade participants:

ACT Maori Performing Arts
ACT Tibetan Community
ACT Tongan Language and Cultural School
African Australia Council ACT
Ahwazian Association
AUSPAK Women Association
Australia China Economic and Cultural Promotions
Australia Mon Association of the ACT
Australian American Association ACT
Australian Guangxi Friendship Association
Australian Multicultural Action Network
Bangladesh High Commission
Bellyup Bellydance Canberra
Borobodur Dance Troupe
Brisas Del Peru
Bulgari in Melbourne
Canberra Dragon Dance
Canberra Ukrainian Community
Caribbean Community
Celebration of African Australians
Colourful Clouds Chasing the Moon
Community Culture Services
East Waist Drum Dance
El Salvador Australia Friendship Association
Embassy of Nepal
Falun Dafa Association of Australia
Federation of Chinese Australian of ACT
Federation of Nepalese Community Associations of Australia
FESS Serbian Dance Group
Fiji Australia Association of ACT and Fiji Vou Dance
Follow The Beat - Baque Voador
Grace Community Group
Han Group
Hare Krishna
Kokoloco Dance Studio
Learning Filipino Together
Limestone Morris
Massed Pipe Band Spectacular
Nepali Kala Sanskriti Tatha Sathiya Pratishthan Canberra
Niu Yan Ge - Australian Chinese Mushroom Association
Pacific Islands Stay Fresh Saturday Showcase
Pakistan Australia Friendship Association
Raio De Sol - Canberra Community Samba Band
Rio Samba
Sanjh International Folk Academy
Sindhi Sangat Australia
So Samba Canberra
Syrenka Polish Folkloric Ensemble
Tarpuy Australia
The Tango Social Club of Canberra
Traditional Vietnamese Dance
Ukrainian Society Co-operative Limited

See you on Saturday!

The post Watch the iconic festival parade first appeared on National Multicultural Festival.

2024 festival program highlights

Emily Nicola — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 01:02:09 +0000

The 2024 National Multicultural Festival is back with a packed program of song, dance and cooking demonstrations.

While you eat your way around the globe you will be entertained by performances, cultural workshops and cooking demonstrations on 8 stages located throughout the city centre and Glebe Park.

The festival will open on Friday night with the explosive Taikoz, a Sydney-based performing ensemble with taiko and percussion at its core. They will be joined in the festival opening concert by Papua New Guinean born R&B artist Ngaiire (pictured below).

Saturday afternoon sees Citizen Kay take to the Smartraveller Garema Stage in the first performance of his new concept album “so, where are we” which draws from traditional Ghanaian rhythms, Soul, Funk, Hip-Hop, and Jazz.

The ever-popular festival parade also returns on Saturday, bigger than ever with more than 50 groups participating. Along with crowd favourites like the Latin samba dancers and the Chinese lion dancers, this year look out for scotty dogs amongst the Celtic pipe bands.

Highlights on the Sunday include critically acclaimed flamenco artist Paco Lara and back after last year’s great response are cooking demonstrations of some our favourite dishes.

Other program highlights include:

The Beez and their yodellin', thigh slappin’, lederhosen wettin' dancefest of German flavoured music
Italian flag throwers astonishing us with their coordination and skill
All the excitement of Punjab dance coming to us straight from India with the Sanjh International Folk Academy
Multicultural story time and craft at Civic Library, a must for the kids and the kids-at-heart
Traditional games and activities taught by the Hazara Multicultural Community
Echoes from Delta: A cultural Odyssey of folk and classical performances from the Eastern Delta region of Southern Asia
Colourful and dynamic dances shared from countries including Cambodia, Poland, Chile, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Greece and Fiji

And so much more!

With more than 170 multicultural communities sharing their culture and heritage over the weekend there is something for everyone.

Check out the full program

The post 2024 festival program highlights first appeared on National Multicultural Festival.

Everything’s golden: another 2023 festival win

372-admin — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 21:15:07 +0000

We have exciting news.. we have won gold in the Major Festivals and Events category at the 2023 Canberra Region Tourism Awards!

These awards acknowledge and showcase the Canberra Region’s best tourism operators, and it’s an honour to be recognised alongside many other spectacular tourism events in the ACT.

The 2023 festival attracted a record-breaking crowd of 380,000 people in February this year.

The National Multicultural Festival will now represent Canberra at the National Tourism Awards in Darwin early next year.

The award recognised the National Multicultural Festival for creating economic impact, increasing visitor numbers to the ACT and community participation in delivering the festival.

Winning this award follows a previous win in the Best Community Event category at the Australian Event Awards in September. This award which recognised the benefits of an event in building communities and community engagement.

Many people contribute to the National Multicultural Festival each year to make this event such a huge success. From stallholders and performers to volunteers and our festival attendees: thank you, this achievement is truly a community effort.

We can’t wait to see you all at the 2024 festival to celebrate!

The post Everything’s golden: another 2023 festival win first appeared on National Multicultural Festival.

Officially Australia’s Best Community Event

372-admin — Tue, 12 Sep 2023 19:58:11 +0000

We have won Best Community Event at the 2023 Australian Event Awards!

All records were broken in February 2023 as we celebrated the festival’s 25th anniversary by bringing together 170 cultures as part of our community-led three-day festival.

This award goes out to our wonderful multicultural community. The festival is by you, for you, so this award is for you too!

Countless hours go into preparing cultural stalls, performances, showcases, workshops and cooking demonstrations. This event couldn’t happen without your endless support. Thank you, and congratulations!

There were some amazing national finalists in this category and we are honoured to be counted among them. Congratulations as well to all the finalists and winners for 2023.

We were also nominated for the Best Cultural, Arts or Music Event at the national level, which means we rated in the top 5 scores nationally for this category.

Our award and finalist recognition contributed to an overall win for the ACT in The State or Territory Award, which recognises and celebrates the State or Territory where the largest number of high-quality events have occurred.

This demonstrate what Canberrans already know: the National Multicultural Festival is a weekend not to be missed! See you at the next one, on from 16 to 18 February 2024. Subscribe to our newsletter for event updates.

The post Officially Australia’s Best Community Event first appeared on National Multicultural Festival.

Back with gusto! 2023 festival the biggest yet

372-admin — Fri, 21 Apr 2023 06:06:53 +0000

It’s official: the 25th National Multicultural Festival had the most attendees ever!

The festival achieved a total attendance of 380,563, smashing previous records.

This was an extraordinary 273,965 individuals, with many people eagerly returning over the three days contributing to the record total attendance. Visitors enjoyed 266 stalls, more than 325 performance groups, 34 workshops, 16 cooking demonstrations, a record breaking 30 cultural showcases and the largest ever festival parade.

More than 170 cultures were represented this year in Australia’s largest celebration of cultural diversity, with many new groups represented.

Additionally, 94.7% of survey participants believed the event raises the profile of multicultural communities whilst 93.8% affirm that holding the festival in Canberra creates a real buzz in the city.

The event generated a total economic benefit of $20.8 million to the ACT.

According to the IER Pty Ltd research report, over 30,500 interstate or international visitors attended the festival, with just under 18,000 of these travelling to the ACT specifically for the event. The festival created a substantial boost to the local economy, resulting in over 40,000 visitor nights and a total economic benefit of $20.8 million, large increases from the 2020 figures of 22,000 and $12.2 million respectively.

Thank you to everybody involved! We couldn’t do it without the volunteers, stallholders, performers, businesses, showcase leaders and the hundreds and thousands of visitors who were entertained, delighted and fed throughout the event.

See you in 2024!

The post Back with gusto! 2023 festival the biggest yet first appeared on National Multicultural Festival.