The Whistler Multicultural Festival is moving online for 2020.
While the annual celebration of the cultures that make up Whistler usually takes place in June, this year organizers spent the summer working to put it together for Monday, Sept. 28 to Friday, Oct. 2.
On each of those days there will be a free event—ranging from children’s crafts to cooking, customs, traditions, and interviews—for an hour on Zoom and Facebook Live.
“Recent world events have only gone to raise awareness of the diversity in our communities and we see emerging dialogue and desire for interaction in order to build cross-cultural understanding and connections,” organizers say in a release. “Importantly, we have found that volunteers from the diverse communities feel more empowered, validated, and gain a much greater sense of belonging from facilitating workshops, activities, and teaching visitors about their culture. Our challenge during COVID-19 is to find a way to continue this activity, and the importance of continuing it even during these strange times has influenced our decision to move the event online.”
Cultures represented in the online offerings include Japan, China, Morocco, Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, Chile, local First Nations, Spain, the Philippines, El Salvador, New Zealand, and Turkey.
The presentations will take place on the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 4 to 5 p.m. while Tuesday and Thursday events will run from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
For more information, visit whistlermulticulturalfestival.com.
Fairmont Chateau Whistler wins arts honour
The Fairmont Chateau Whistler was named this year’s Champion of Arts and Culture at the Whistler Excellence Awards.
This year, the Whistler Chamber of Commerce decided to limit nominations to institutions rather than individuals. The nominees included the Whistler Film Festival and the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre.
“We’re only limited by our imagination,” said Yasmin Haufschild, director of special events with the Fairmont, in the video announcing the winners. “So we’re going to continue to weave in arts and culture into our programming to build community.”
In her acceptance speech, she acknowledged the work of the other nominees and highlighted the importance of community.
“The hotel strives to promote authentically local experiences to visitors,” Haufschild says. “I think we can all agree that Whistler and the Sea to Sky corridor has an incredible pool of talent and rich culture that we can showcase. I truly believe it takes a village to raise an arts and culture sector. 2020 has presented us with some unique opportunities and I’m curious to see how we all work together to come up with creative solutions to move forward. But we can do it! So let’s move forward.”
To see the full video of the Whistler Excellence Awards visit whistlerchamber.com/training-and-events/whistler-excellence-awards.
