The last time Our Lady of Lourdes hosted its Multicultural Festival, Kellyanne Mangali and the rest of her schoolmates were still too young to be a high school student.
After a lengthy pandemic hiatus, the festival returned in a big way Wednesday evening.
Over 200 people showed up to the school’s cafeteria for the free event to celebrate diversity and culture.
There was a variety of musical performances, and mounds of food from all parts of the world, from Ethiopian cuisine to Filipino, Hungarian, Indian and more.
“It really is incredible to see this,” said Mangali, a Grade 11 student at Lourdes and a student representative on the parent council.
“To see all these families come together singing and performing together, wearing their own clothes from their own culture. It’s just really beautiful to see everyone coming together.”
As for the talent, mainly students, Mangali is a big fan.
“I hear these people every day, and I am so astounded. It’s beautiful,” she said.
The Multicultural Festival started in 2017 as a way to get to know parents and students.
But it quickly evolved into a community event. The last event happened in 2019, before the pandemic brought the event to a halt.
Harry Jansen, whose daughter is a Grade 9 student, just joined the Lourdes parent council last fall. He previously attended the event in pre-pandemic times.
“I thought what a great event, and this will be great when my daughter gets here, she can experience this as well,” he said, adding the festival needed to make a comeback.
“I’m hoping that with word of mouth, it grows even more next year and the year after so we get back to what it was five years ago.”
“We weren’t sure how it would go, but so far, we’re overwhelmed with how much support we had from parents and how many kids came tonight,” said principal Valerie Marks.
The event is being looked at as a kickoff to cultural events happening at the school all month, as Lourdes is celebrating cultural diversity through the month of May.
“We’re really proud of our Lourdes community here, particularly just the sheer number of kids that are here in celebration of each other, in celebration of their differences, their cultures,” said vice-principal Amanda Belluz. “It really allows them to have a lot of respect and understanding for each other, and it really does bring our kids and our teachers and our parent community together, and we feel very much like a family here because of it.”
Marks said she is already thinking about how to ramp it up even more in 2025.
One thing everyone has agreed upon is to increase the amount of food available.
Because if you were late to the party, you likely didn’t get to indulge.
“All the food went out 45 (minutes) to an hour,” Mangali said. “I think next year, definitely more and more food, more and more people are coming. It’s great to see that.”
“I think this year we had about 12 (food tables),” added Jansen. “I think next year, we’d like to hit 20 or more.
“It was well attended, especially by the kids. And that’s what it’s really about.”
