A feast for the senses: Edmonton Heritage Festival returns in full force

The Heritage Festival is back at Hawrelak Park this Saturday and expected to draw pre-pandemic crowds of more than 350,000 visitors.

The iconic summer festival hasn’t been able to operate in full capacity in the last few years, with the 2021 event running at 50 per cent attendance by visitors and vendors.

Robert Rohatyn, Edmonton Heritage Festival president, said the organization is excited to welcome back the community in full, and they are delighted to have some new faces joining the crowd this year as well.

The Oromo pavilion will be joining the more than 60 other pavilions sharing their culture and traditions through music, dance and food.

Dereje Beranda, Oromian pavillion director, said the Oromo make up the largest nation in Ethiopia but remain a marginalized group. He adds that celebrating and showcasing their diverse nation in their home country is impossible - making their addition to the festival a great point of pride.

“Our community members are rejoicing,” said Beranda, adding that members of the nation are travelling to Edmonton from around the world to join the celebration. “This is where we can display our culture to the world. It’s a big achievement and also history for us - for the Oromo nation - to show ourselves in this world village.”

Rohatyn said that the festival is a not-for-profit, and money raised at the event goes back to the Edmonton Heritage Festival and to the community centers of the participating pavilions. He said supporting the festival supports those community organizations to do their own events and programming throughout the year.

Jim Gibbon, Edmonton Heritage Festival executive director, said the festival fights racism and promotes intercultural contact, and he cites research showing that intercultural contact, especially in environments that promote inclusion, has been shown to improve mutual acceptance.

However, there will be one culture notably absent from this year's event. The Russian pavilion has pulled out of the physical event, and will only be participating virtually. Rohatyn said the group made the decision to pull out based on operational concerns.

“We continue to welcome them,” Rohatyn said. “We’re looking forward to welcoming them back at future festivals.”

The festival will move next year when rehabilitation work starts in Hawrelak Park. A new site for the event has not yet been announced.