Thanks to the Helping Hands Society and the Cochrane Immigrant Services Committee, the inaugural 2019 Cochrane Culture Fest held at the Cochrane Lions Event Centre on Sunday (September 29), was an incredible success.

Both attendees and attending cultural groups found the day educational, lively, and long overdue, says Jackie Shier, Event Lead. "People had so many good comments. They were just so pleased to see an event focus on the multicultural aspect of Cochrane and to learn about all the countries and cultures that are here. Everyone was positive about all of it. Many people from larger centres stopped and told me about larger multicultural events in other cities like Edmonton's 'Heritage Days' or Winnipeg's 'Folklorama.' They were just thrilled that we had something like that in our community. I even had one lady on the way out say, where else can you go and visit sixteen different countries in one day?!"

Shier says she was initially a little worried that the weather would put a damper on the event, but those feelings quickly went away. "The weather wasn't on our side, but people came out in hoards. At the start, we had 225 people, and they kept flooding through the doors. I think they really enjoyed the entertainment, the chance to sample some foods from all the different countries, and the enthusiasm for the event was just overwhelming."

Estimating that well over 600 people came through the door, Shier says it was great to see such fellowship between attendees. "I had a couple of the groups say they will often do events like this Calagary, but they loved the feel of this one. They felt that people were really interested that they wanted to come up and talk to them, and learn about the culture. They had lots of questions about traditional clothing, culture, food, climate, and some even asked questions about the country's politics."

"We were delighted with how it all went; I didn't think that we would get that great of a response."

With the event being such a success, Shier only imagines the festival will grow and get better. "With so many comments that we needed this for a while and thank you for putting this on, we had a lot of people come up and say they want to get involved next year and put a booth in."

Partnering with Alberta Culture Days was a great move, states Shier, and they will once again look for grant opportunities to bring 2020 Cochrane Culture Fest to town.