Rain on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon didn’t dampen Canberra’s enthusiasm for the National Multicultural Festival on 16-18 February, which looks set to match last year’s 380,563 attendance record. Official figures are expected to be released later this week.
Touted as “Australia’s largest celebration of cultural diversity”, the National Multicultural Festival returned to the heart of Canberra for three days of food and culture from Friday 16 to Sunday 18 February.
A spokesperson for ACT Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Mick Gentleman, said “Once again, we’ve seen a wonderful celebration of culture at the National Multicultural Festival with more than 170 cultures coming together over the weekend”.
“Across the three days, we saw 300 performances groups including 24 cultural showcases, 270 stallholders and seven cooking demonstrations.”
And when it comes to boosting the local economy, the spokesperson said while official information isn’t yet available, “we know from last year’s total economic benefit of $20.8 million, the festival delivers strong economic return for the ACT”.
According to the spokesperson, there was “plenty of feedback from festival goers who loved the diverse entertainment on offer over the eight stages. Some key highlights were:
- The food is always a huge drawcard of the festival, and this year was no exception with more than 100 cultural food stalls offering up incredible food from across the globe.
- Taikoz and Ngaiire delivering incredible performances on Friday night.
- The silent discos in Glebe Park were a huge hit with the big numbers attending. In fact, they were having so much fun they convinced the DJ to extend his set.
- Crowds couldn’t get enough of Citizen Kay who debuted his new album, and we even had a guest appearance from Genesis Owusu.
- The parade wowed crowds as always with more than 50 groups participating along with five Scottie dogs marching.
- Mini Nepal in the City on Saturday night was absolutely packed.
- There was a huge party atmosphere on Saturday night at the Africa Stage in Garema Place.
- Sunday saw great performances from critically acclaimed flamenco artist Paco Laca, and Nayestan Music Band featuring Afghan singer Emal Orya.”
So, what does the festival’s growing popularity tell us about the ACT community?
“The Multicultural Festival is all about celebrating and bringing together the diverse cultures, traditions, and cuisines that make up the multicultural fabric of Canberra,” the spokesperson said. “It is an important platform for cultural exchange and helps to foster a sense of community, belonging, social cohesion in our community.
“The continued popularity of the festival demonstrates Canberra has an inclusive and welcoming community who are eager to learn about traditional celebrations, languages and customs. It also tells us Canberrans have strong support for promoting cultural diversity, fostering community cohesion, and enriching the social and cultural life of our city.”
Last year’s festival, the long-awaited 25th anniversary event and the first held since the pandemic, was the biggest ever, breaking records for attendance (380,000 people) and revenue ($20.8 million), and named the Best Community Event at the Australian Event Awards. The ACT Government invested $3.3 million more in the 2024 and 2025 festivals.
The festival was spread across the city centre, from Garema Place to Glebe Park. To help visitors, shuttle buses operated around the outside of the festival, while free public transport was laid on.
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