A CULTURAL festival celebrating the sun, harvest and local farmers and producers is set to return.<\/p>\n
The Multicultural Harvest Festival is scheduled to take place at Garibaldi Public Hall on Sunday, 29 January from 10am to 2pm, was spearheaded by Neil Para who celebrated the festival in his homeland of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n
His inaugural event took place in early 2021, and although the intended follow up was cancelled, he said he\u2019s keen to make it an annual event.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast time I was expecting about 50 and got 150 attendees so hopefully this will be even bigger. I want this to become a yearly thing,\u201d Mr Para said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came to Ballarat in 2013 and I would celebrate this at home with my family. No one seemed to be doing this as a festival here, so I thought I\u2019d start doing it myself.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is about giving thanks to the farmers, land and nature which is part of Thai Pongal and celebrated by Tamil people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Free food will be provided throughout the event including a sweet rice pot, mothakam, paruppu vadai and quinoa salad.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll also be live music thanks to Duck \u2018N\u2019 Weave and Freya and Tom McGowan, while children\u2019s activities will be available.<\/p>\n
Mr Para said although Thai Pongal is a religious festival back home, its celebration takes on a different meaning in Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wanted to do this here because we\u2019ve always got food on the table,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the holiday season, and it\u2019s the right time to appreciate the farmers here because without them we don\u2019t have food in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although entry is free, as RSVP is preferred for catering purposes, and can be done by visiting the festival Facebook page or website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A CULTURAL festival celebrating the sun, harvest and local farmers and producers is set to return. The Multicultural Harvest Festival is scheduled to take place at Garibaldi Public Hall on Sunday, 29 January from 10am to 2pm, was spearheaded by Neil Para who celebrated the festival in his homeland of Sri Lanka. His inaugural event […]<\/p>\n