Organizers deem weekend multicultural event a success

Kamloops' first Tapestry Festival was held on Saturday, with hundreds of locals coming out to the North Shore's McDonald Park to experience the event.

“We call it Tapestry because it's woven from so many different cultures. I don't know if there's any culture that isn't here,” event coordinator Patti Phillips told Castanet Kamloops.

“We're so excited and honestly, I'm almost teary-eyed. When I look around and I see all these people together, everyone's happy, everyone's having fun, and it's amazing.”

Phillips said organizers originally started planning this event three years ago as a street festival, but after the pandemic threw a wrench in their plans, the festival evolved.

“Last year, I went to do it again and I said, 'There's just no way, everybody's too close for the street,” she explained.

“So we decided to have it at McDonald Park, which is great because we wouldn't have been able to get all these people in one block.”

Phillips said the city really needed a multicultural festival like this one.

“We have so many international people in Kamloops now, I just love it. They're so kind and I find them so grateful for the countries that they come from,” Phillips said.

“We don't always realize how lucky we are to live in Canada and to live in Kamloops.”

A variety of acts were performed on stage, from an interactive Zumba experience to a Chinese dragon.

Phillips said almost all ethnic communities in the city were able to share and celebrate their cultures at the first annual event.

According to the organizer, the Tapestry Festival will be returning annually and is planned to be even bigger in the years to come.