Looking back at the Niagara Folk Arts Festival

The 56th Niagara Folk Arts Festival ran from May 2 to 26 in the region’s various cultural clubs. As tradition dictates, the first activity before the multicultural open houses is the Ambassadors’ Ball, hosted this year by Club Italia.

It was a chance for visitors to taste the culinary riches of each community and to take in a variety of performances. The mistress of ceremonies was Melinda Chartrand, vice-president of the Folk Arts Multicultural Centre.

Two open houses were planned for Niagara’s francophones. First, on May 18, at Immaculate Conception Parish in St. Catharines, Sofifran welcomed the community for a celebration of Afro-Canadian culture with Senegalese, Congolese and Caribbean food, all to the driving djembe rhythms of artist Amadou Kiénou.

“Representatives of the various cultures came to visit Amour Samanga, Sofifran’s representative, who is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There were slightly fewer ambassadors this year and fewer cultural clubs, but we are very pleased with the turnout. More than 150 people came and all the food was gone. A real success!” said Sofifran’s founder and executive director, Fété Ngira-Batware Kimpiobi.

The dishes were prepared by Congolese cooks Élodie Kionguisa and Grace Nyamzaka. There was also Senegalese cooking by Khadi Diop.

“For this event, Le Griffon provided the sound system and technical support. As usual, we had a sale of African artwork and a decorated space. Visitors sampled two streams of African flavours with completely different spices. The dishes are similar but the recipes are not. Visitors loved it!” Ms. Kimpiobi concluded.

The other francophone event took place at Club LaSalle in St. Catharines for a festive evening in French. On the menu: a traditional French-Canadian meal with baked beans, tourtières and meatballs, traditional dancing and square dancing with Denis Simoneau and Simon Hauber on fiddle, along with the Gilles Groleau orchestra and his guests, Carole Anderson, Micheline Hauber, Enrico M. Schirru on bass and Jim Hobarts on drums.

The ambassadors of the Filipino, German, Slovak, Armenian and Polish clubs came to visit Club LaSalle’s ambassador and host for the evening, Gabriella Foster. Along with tasting French-Canadian dishes, they played the spoons and made little wooden jigging dolls dance with help from Denis Simoneau. They enjoyed the experience immensely.

More than 240 people took part in this traditional evening where the Francophonie shares its culture. A great success!

Photo: Amadou Kiénou and his musicians had visitors dancing at the Sofifran open house.