RIVERLIGHTS MULTICULTURAL FESTIVAL TO ACKNOWLEDGE MAITLAND’S GROWING DIVERSITY

Maitland City Council is staging its inaugural Riverlights Multicultural Festival on Saturday 13 October, in response to the major recent growth in the city’s migrant population.

The 2011 Census results showed that 8,233 Maitland residents were born overseas – a 5.2 per cent increase from 2006. It also showed that 19.6 per cent of the population had at least one parent born overseas and there are more 1,147 households where more than one language is spoken at home.

Riverlights Multicultural Festival will be an explosion of colour as more than 15 different cultural groups come together to acknowledge and celebrate the community’s diversity.

Coordinator Community Planning, Mary Dallow said food and entertainment will play a large role in the celebrations.

‘A number of cultural groups from across the community will be providing an international smorgasbord of home cooked, authentic food,’ she said.

‘We have a Peruvian community group, Lebanese, Chilean, Chinese and a variety of African cultural groups.’

There will also be a range of professional entertainment and the very special Riverlights Spectacular where hundreds of handmade lanterns will light up the Hunter River at dusk.

‘As well as supporting the event with their attendance, there are workshops being held at two of Maitland’s libraries to learn how to make a lantern for the spectacular,’ Ms Dallow said.

‘Maitland Regional Art Gallery is also getting involved with live art project Maitland Memoir where people are invited to donate a momento from their culture for inclusion in a large project on the day.’

Two lantern making workshops will be held at East Maitland Library tomorrow at 10.00am and 11.00am and at Rutherford Library on Friday. For more information contact Maitland City Library on 4933 6952.