The Folklorama Cultural Festival of Winnipeg

Celebrating Canada’s Diverse Ethnic Origins

Aug 12, 2009

Folklorama, Winnipeg's long-running cultural festivals, has presented Canada's diversity to the world for forty years with dancing, ethnic food, and cultural displays.

Canadians love to celebrate the cultures that make up the vast nation, and the residents of Winnipeg, Manitoba, are no exception. When civic leaders in the mid-sized city decided to hold a cultural festival called Folklorama to celebrate the province’s centenary year in 1970, they had no idea that the one-time event would continue for forty years, growing to become one of Canada’s largest events of its kind.

The Scope and Variety of Folklorama

As the official Folklorama website records, the festival has grown from a seven-day festival with representatives from 21 countries to a two-week event with 41 countries’ pavilions. A kick-off event at the park and shopping area at the forks of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers begins the festivities, but the rest of the festival is held in school gymnasiums, community centers, and arenas around the city. These pavilions generally run every evening for a week and include food, cultural displays, and performances of ethnic music and dancing.

Many of the pavilions return every year, but sometimes there are changes. As the Winnipeg Free Press reports, the 2009 Folklorama has celebrated the return of Mexico and Indo-China after an absence of some time, while the new Colombian pavilion has brought the musical group Folklore de Mi Tierra. With local talent and guest performers from around the world, the events have something to interest everyone.

Visiting the Korean, Mexican, and Israeli Pavilions of Folklorama

Among the venues in 2009 was the Korean pavilion, held in a school gymnasium during the first week of the festival. Food ranged from transparent potato noodles and beef to the spicy cabbage called kimchi, prepared and served by the Korean community. The performance, held four times an evening for the week, included fan dances, drumming, and a tae kwon do demonstration involving children and adults, Koreans and others. With high kicks, powerful flips, and long jumps, the demonstration amply showed the participants’ skills.

Talent and dedication are key factors in Folkorama’s success. The Mexican pavilion returned with a flourish to showcase some of the best of the country’s talent, with skilled dancers performing a hat dance as well as other typical cultural pieces. The food consisted mainly of tacos, but the cultural displays set up in the style of a traditional Mexican market helped convey the feel of Mexico to the visitors. With costumed participants mingling with guests after the show, the pavilion was warm and inviting.

The Israel pavilion was quite different in some ways, although the basic features were the same. The event took place in a Jewish cultural center, where permanent cultural displays tell the people’s story. The route from the door to the auditorium took visitors past meeting rooms and even a swimming pool before proceeding to the meeting room. Ethnic food included falafels and other typical Middle Eastern dishes, and the performance included singing as well as dancing. As at the other pavilions, total strangers came together for a short time to celebrate the cultures that make Canada what it is.

Most visitors to Folklorama see little of what goes on behind the scenes. In addition to the many local volunteers who cook, make crafts to display or sell, and help in the performances are the programs that make the event possible. Folklorama Talent seeks dancers and musicians from around the world to perform at the festival and other events throughout the year, while Folklorama Travel makes the arrangements for performers and tour groups to visit Winnipeg. Children at the schools and daycares in and around the city hear the stories of the different cultures through Folklorama Teaching.

Winnipeg’s cultural richness may be difficult to spot for most of the year, when people of all backgrounds live, study, and work together in the same places. However, during two weeks every year at Folklorama, people of all origins can gather together to celebrate what makes each group unique.

The copyright of the article The Folklorama Cultural Festival of Winnipeg in Manitoba Travel is owned by Susan Huebert. Permission to republish The Folklorama Cultural Festival of Winnipeg in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.