Wollongong’s diverse communities are the focus of a new contemporary festival set for Saturday October 21.
Culture Mix’s cause is to celebrate diversity through music, dance, art and food from across the world.
Wollongong City Council event specialist Belinda Morris said the festival is focused on both the traditional and contemporary elements of culture.
“The thing that we’ve really tried to focus on is making it a real collaborative opportunity for programming, so we’re working really closely with our multicultural community groups and our First Nations groups to be involved in the direction of the program,” Mrs Morris said.
“It feels like [the festival] is very authentic and very rich.”
The Culture Mix Advisory Group saw a variety of community representatives and multicultural services work together to encompass everyone in the celebration.
Illawarra Multicultural Services projects coordinator Amro Zoabe said Wollongong has a history rich in multiculturalism.
“It’s quite essential that we do share what makes Wollongong, which is how diverse we are in our connection to land, our connection to the sea and our connection to Illawarra’s government,” Mr Zoabe said.
“There’s hundreds of different languages spoken, there’s hundreds of different backgrounds and everyone gets along really well.”
The festival will feature a collection of creative workshops, traditional food stalls and three stages showcasing a global soundtrack.
Local storyteller Lillian Rodrigues-Pang has worked alongside the festival’s Global Kitchen to share the cultural stories behind the dishes.
“It’s an opportunity to sit down, eat and have questions and have topics that are there available for us to really converse about,” Mrs Rodrigues-Pang said.
“I think that’s a real opportunity for all of us to become more united as a community and I think that’s really what Culture Mix is about.”
Culture Mix is a free, accessible event to be held at Wollongong CBD on Saturday October 21.
You can keep up with Culture Mix updates via their Facebook event page.
Image source: Wollongong City Council
