Community consultation at heart of Pako Festa

THE organisers of Pako Festa have worked closely with Geelong’s multicultural community as the popular event prepares to return to its traditional street format.

Pako Festa switched to Northern Community Hub in Norlane in 2022 but will again be held along the northern half of Pakington Street this year on February 25.

The event describes itself as “Victoria’s largest free celebration of cultural diversity” and in 2020, saw 10,000 people perform across five stages and 2,000 participate in the street parade in front of a crowd of more than 100,000.

Cultura chief executive officer Joy Leggo said “the last touches” were being applied to Pako Festa ahead of the event.

 

“It’s actually exciting, and we can feel the momentum start to build.

“We had a meeting last week with 19 of the ethnic communities of Geelong, and there was a real buzz in the room about the thought of coming back down Pakington Street – they were really, really thrilled about that – being able to bring their food and dancers.”

She said more than 20 different ethnicities would be represented on the day.

“It just brings that sense of connection together and how proud they are of their heritage.”

Ms Leggo said Pako Festa’s 2023 edition would be much the same as it was in 2020 and in previous years (it was cancelled in 2021), and police had estimated the crowd size would approach 100,000.

“There’s lots of consultation that goes on with this, it’s grassroots and community-driven, there’s no money in this for Cultura, it’s an opportunity for our communities to do some fundraising for themselves, and they wanted to call it like a reunion, for it to get back where it was pre-COVID.”

Ms Leggo said Cultura also had an eye to staging another event this year in response to the devastating February 6 earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria that have killed at least 40,000 people.

“We’re really mindful at the moment about Turkiye and Syria, we’ve got staff members and our heart goes out to them with the devastation over there, but there’s lots of unrest in the world at the moment.

“After this event, once we get over Pako Festa, we’re probably going to have a look at what we can do about some sort of healing event or something for Geelong that brings everyone together in that sense of peace and support.

“I think the world’s off its axle at the moment a little bit, and that’s very distressing.”