TheTraveler

 

Around the World in 14 Days and 46 Ways
Deborah Clark

You can hear the drums, beating African rhythms throughout the night air, long before you get to the building. By the time you arrive at the door, the drums are competing with the spicy aromas. The smells and the sounds are intoxicating. Once inside the large church hall that is packed with people, you are giddy with the profusion of colors.

For forty minutes you eat drink and absorb the essence of Africa. Then you join in with the other spectators, as they evacuate the building, trying to reach the next destination in their evening’s journey. No, you are not in the middle of an African village, although for a brief time, it felt that way. You are in the middle of the Folklorama experience.

For two weeks every summer, Winnipeg, Canada hosts a multi-cultural celebration that is exhilarating and unique. It is not just that you can visit Pavilions and immerse yourself in a particular culture, whether Irish, African, Philippine, or Chilean. It is that this celebration is organized, and the Pavilions are operated by, volunteers. Since its inception, Folklorama has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, not only from Winnipeg, but North America and around the world.

The Cuban Pavilion, operated by a tiny enclave of thirty-six members, has food, music and dance that will remain with you long after you have speed across the city to another venue.

Steel drums lure visitors into the cavernous Franco-Manitoban Cultural Centre, the only venue large enough to accommodate the nightly crowds that come to watch the limbo dancers shimmy under the flaming poles set incredibly low to the floor. As you watch, you can sample the food prepared and served by the hundreds of volunteers that make the time seem like you are on an island beach having a ‘cook’ rather than in a dark hall with hundreds of other guests.

St. Boniface, the French quarter of Winnipeg, seems an unlikely place to find the Hindi Pavilion. But here, on two levels in a Roman Catholic church, Indian wares are displayed, Menhdi, a henna tattooing art, is created and traditional dances are performed. The food is delightful. But the display of sari silks and silver jewelry is what brings many guests back year after year.

Each Pavilion is open only one week. For twenty-three communities, the nightly ritual, of delivering, stocking and heating the foods, preparing cultural information and setting up booths, is performed. At the end of the week, the volunteers clean up for the last time to make way for the next week’s volunteers.

A smart, and careful, visitor can see three Pavilions, watch the shows, and browse the diverse offering each of the nights. A truly organized and determined person could do four visits each of the nights, as there are many Pavilions with later offerings.

Folklorama is organized to help much visitors get the maximum experience from their evening. Each show lasts approximately the same length of time, and each venue adheres to roughly the same schedule. So, you can manage to move from one venue to the next without worrying too much about missing the performances. Of course, for the most popular Pavilions, the Irish, Caribbean and South Asia, the line ups can impede the best-laid schedules. You should plan to attend these first.

With more than 20,000 volunteers, Folklorama is a labor of love and no small undertaking in itself. But for the volunteers, many of whom have been involved since Folklorama’s inception in 1970, there is no better way to spend their time.

One or two weeks after the last Pavilion closes, volunteers meet again to begin planning for the next year’s festivities.

Find out more about Folklorama at their official website

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