Multicultural festival approaches

DIVERSITAT Pako Festa, established in 1983, is held annually on the last Saturday in February on Pakington Street, Geelong West.

It has become an important platform to ensure that Victoria’s multicultural communities can celebrate, preserve and share cultural traditions in a meaningful way.

Pako Festa promotes a general positive awareness of the cultural diversity in the Greater Geelong Region, through a combination of food, music, dance, and creative projects by transfer of information in a harmonious environment.

The street is lined with stalls selling traditional food and arts and crafts, make sure you visit each community stall to collect a unique Pako Festa recipe; which has been passed down through generations!

Pako Festa offers free entertainment for the entire family across six performances and of course not to mention the great Pako Festa parade starting at 11am with spectacular colour, movement and creativity from around the globe.

Local community groups involved in the event are either in the street parade, cooking up a storm or performing on the event day include: Afghan, Bosnian, Brazilian, Chinese, Croatian, Dutch, Fijian, Filipino, French, Greek, Hazara, Hungarian, Indonesian, Iranian, Irish, Iraqi, Italian, Japanese, Karen, Karenni, Lao Thai, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Maitri, Maori, Nepalese, Nigerian, Polish, Russian, Scottish (Highland), Serbian Youth Club, Serbian St Nicholas, Slovenian, Spanish, Sikh, Syriac, Ukrainian and Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-op.

The 2019 Pako Festa is delivered by Diversitat and is supported by The Victorian State Government, Victorian Multicultural Commission, Channel 7 and the City of Greater Geelong.

In addition, it could not be delivered without the support of the local diverse communities, Pakington Street Traders and many other local and non-local organisations and businesses.

Be sure to save the date Saturday February 23 and head to Pako Festa and share in the enriching connections of community and culture.

To keep up to date on all the 2019 activities and the full program visit pakofesta.com.au.