FCSS hosting Multi-Cultural Festival in Taber

Posted on September 12, 2024 by Vauxhall Advance

By Garrett Simmons|
FCSS Communications

The Town of Taber is a hub for newcomers.

In fact, the southern Alberta community is ahead of the curve when it comes to welcoming people from outside Canada’s borders.

“Taber is a very diverse community,” said Kaitlynn Weaver, Outreach Services Supervisor for Family and Community Support Services. “A statistic I just read indicates about 24 per cent of Taber is made up of newcomers or immigrants, which is pretty incredible, given the provincial average is quite a bit lower than that.”

With so many people new to the community, FCSS and The Town of Taber formulated a plan to host a Multi-Cultural Festival on Sept. 14 at Confederation Park. The free event will run from noon-8 p.m.

“It’s a collaboration event with The Town of Taber and FCSS, as well as the Southern Alberta Kanadier Association,” said Weaver. “The goal of the event is to celebrate and recognize the many different cultures that make up Taber and area. We are celebrating those who are new to Canada, those who make up Canada and then those who were here in our region first – the indigenous Blackfoot community.”

The festival will boast musical and cultural performances, food trucks, an outdoor market featuring several different cultural themes, activities for kids and a resource fair.

“We’re pretty excited to be able to celebrate the diversity and to be able to partner with The Town of Taber,” said Margarita Penner, Newcomer Services Supervisor for FCSS. “But because it will be such a big draw of newcomers and residents, we wanted to get FCSS’s name out there and provide information on the services we offer.”

FCSS booths will include counselling services and the newcomer services department, to name just a few, who will be featured along with Taber services agencies such as Taber Adult Learning, Safe Haven an the town’s immigration program, the Rural Renewal Stream.

It all promises to be a day full of cultural enrichment and learning.

“We were wanting to get a more diverse group of performers to come, so we have an Indigenous performer and we have a dance group from El Salvador, who are a group of young girls,” said Taylor Mountstephen, the town’s Economic Development assistant. “We have some Japanese Taiko drummers and we have an acoustic singer/songwriter, Veronica Rain.”

The final performer of the night, David Toews, will put a bow on the festival.

“He’s a famous performer from Paraguay who’s on a tour right now,” said Penner. “He’s from the Low-German culture and he’s a singer, songwriter, recording artist and he’s very well known in the LGM community. We’re very excited to be bringing him in as the headliner of the multicultural festival. The last time David Toews performed in Taber we had over 2,000 people attend.”

Toews will be sure to delight a wide variety of festival goers.

“He is going to perform in English, Spanish and he’ll do some low-German songs as well,” said Mountstephen. “He’ll do a couple of sets catered to some different groups there, so I think that’s pretty cool.”

Amy Allred, the town’s Economic Development manager, added the festival idea has been in the works for years.

“We’re very excited to partner with FCSS on this event and excited that it falls during Alberta Culture Days as well, because this is something that we have wanted to put together and celebrate for a few years now, and this partnership has brought it to life,” she said. “We have a lot of newcomers and a lot of cultures in Taber and in the area, and being able to showcase their culture and share it with people and celebrate it is going to be really wonderful.”

Taber has become a hotspot for newcomers, as Allred pinpointed where some are coming from.

“Our largest portion of newcomers are East Indian,” said Allred, who added the next-largest group would be from the Philippines.

After that, newcomers are spread out from around the world, from locations such as China, Egypt, Morocco, Trinidad and Tobago and the United Kingdom, for example.

”Coming from a different culture, a different climate to Taber, a very small town compared to where most of these newcomers are from is quite a big culture shock, especially when you show up in winter,” said Allred. “We have great community service groups and supports that are able to help newcomers settle and hopefully stay long term.”

Penner added FCSS services, often offered in English, Spanish and low-German, can go a long way towards helping newcomers adjust.

 “The challenges that we see for a lot of newcomers is just navigating the system,” she said. “I think even long-term residents can have a hard time trying to figure out what benefits they are entitled to and so when you add that extra layer of not being from Canada, it’s a little more challenging.”

To learn more about the festival, visit http://www.fcss.ca.