South Canberra will come alive with colour, music and dance later this month as South.Point Shopping Centre hosts a Harmony Day celebration designed to bring cultures together in the heart of the community.

The celebration, to be held on Saturday 21 March between 11am and 2pm in Centre Court, will include a multicultural concert, activities for kids, and a colourful parade through the shopping centre.

For South.Point Marketing Manager Carole Arulantu, the event is about far more than entertainment; it is about the function of the shopping centre as a meeting place for the local community.

“Harmony Day is a celebration of diverse cultures,” she says. “It’s something that’s very big in schools across Australia, but as a shopping centre we also want to embrace that diversity and bring the community together to celebrate.”

Since she joined the centre seven months ago, Carole says she has come to realise the importance of the centre as a hub in the Canberra south community.

“What I’ve realised after being here is that South.Point is very much a community hub and everything we do, we like it to be community-related as well.”

The Harmony Day celebration is part of that broader vision of creating meaningful experiences within the centre.

The event will feature performances from seven cultural groups, strategically programmed in association with Fair Canberra, showcasing the richness and diversity of Canberra’s multicultural community.

Audiences can expect a lively program of dance and music, featuring Indian traditional dance, Chinese dance, Pacific Islands dance, Greek dance, Nepalese dance and Brazilian Samba dance . One of the highlights of the program is expected to be an African choir.

“The African voices are going to bring the whole building down,” Carole says. “They’re going to sound absolutely beautiful.”

For many residents in Canberra’s south, she says events like this provide an opportunity to experience cultural performances closer to home.

“A lot of people here would normally have to drive into the city to attend the annual National Multicultural Festival,” she says.

Instead, South.Point is aiming to bring that spirit of celebration directly to the southern community.

“In collaboration with Fair Canberra, we will be bringing multiculturalism and global culture to the deep south”, says Carole.

Alongside the stage performances, families attending the event can also take part in a range of free hands-on cultural activities for children.

Three community groups will host craft tables where kids can learn traditional techniques from different cultures.

The Pacific Islands community will teach children how to make decorative garlands and potentially grass skirts, while another activity will focus on Chinese lantern making.

Members of the Thai community will also be running a craft activity where children can create hibiscus flowers using nylon fabric.

“It’s really about community engagement at its best,” Carole says.

At the conclusion of the performances, all participating cultural groups will return to the stage for a finale before taking part in a colourful parade through the centre.

The procession will travel through South.Point so that visitors and retailers across the centre can experience the celebration.

For Carole, Harmony Day also carries a powerful message about inclusion and understanding.

“I hope people take away respect and inclusivity,” she says.

“In Australia, we readily embrace different cultures and communities. At a time when there’s so much conflict happening around the world, this is when we come together.

“As Australians we care, we include and we respect. That’s what it’s all about.”

The Harmony Day celebration was also shaped by feedback from the community.

With a background in tourism and events, Carole says she wanted to better understand what visitors were hoping to see at the centre.

“We went out with a small survey and asked people what they would like to see in this space,” she says. “One of the things we heard was to bring mini multicultural events into the centre.”

While the Harmony Day concert will run for three hours, it is also part of a much bigger plan.

In the future, South.Point hopes to expand these cultural celebrations beyond the shopping centre itself and into the surrounding local precinct.

“Down the track, we aim to execute festivals on Anketell Street including  Indian, Chinese, Greek, Pacific Islands and African festivals,” she says.

With Canberra’s population continuing to grow and diversify, she says the Harmony Day celebration and any future events are an opportunity for communities to connect, learn and celebrate together.

“Canberra loves multiculturalism,” she says. “And we’re excited to bring these celebrations to the south and we welcome all of Canberra to join us.”

South.Point’s Harmony Day celebration takes place on Saturday 21 March from 11am to 2pm in Centre Court. Entry and all children’s activities are free. For more info, visit southpointcanberra.com.au