The City of Ryde Harmony Festival 2008 is the ideal opportunity to learn more about your neighbours and experience the richness and diversity of cultures from all over the world through traditions, food, sport and entertainment.
Announcing the third annual Harmony Festival, this year to be held in Ryde Park, the Mayor for the City of Ryde, Clr Ivan Petch said: “The Harmony Festival promotes mutual respect and understanding of our community’s diversity through a range of activities and celebrations. It gives everyone the opportunity to show their support for the traditional Australian values of justice, equality, friendship and living in harmony.”
Harmony Festival 2008 Program
Sunday 30 March, 11am – 4pm, Ryde Park, Cnr Blaxland Rd & Princess Street, Ryde.
• Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony
• Aboriginal carving demonstration and didgeridoo playing
• International food stalls and market stalls
• Performances and displays by local kids and schools
• Meditation Tent
• Demonstrations of traditional sports/activities eg martial arts, Tug of War, Gasing (Indonesian Spinning Tops), Bocce, Sports Star, Cricket, Hockey, Soccer
• Dances (Korean Fan Dance, Irish Dancing, Bharatnatyam, Lion Dance)
• Singing Combined Public School Choir
• Music – Drumbeats – dunun and djembe drums/flutes/North African tabla and vocals. Tibetan bell singing. West African dance act. Speewah (Aussie bush music), Music of Joy (Indian devotion music) world music.
• Barefoot Bowls (tbc)
Community Information Expo
Thursday 27 March , 10.00am-12 noon,
With more than 30 different cultural groups living in the Ryde area, a feature of the festival is a Community Information Expo to help residents from non-English speaking backgrounds and newly arrived migrants access a range of community and local information and services on health, employment, education and lifestyle. Bilingual interpreters proficient in languages including Korean, Cantonese, Mandarin, Indian dialects and languages, Vietnamese, Czech, Armenian and Arabic will be on hand to help with enquiries.
The Harmony Festival is organised and managed through the City of Ryde Community Harmony Reference Group in consultation with the Ryde Hunters Hill Multicultural Network. The City of Ryde Community Harmony Reference group was formed in November 2004 to promote local community harmony, is chaired by the Mayor of the City of Ryde. It consists of twelve local representatives from multicultural backgrounds and six Councillors.
For more information on the City of Ryde’s Harmony Festival 2008, contact Customer Service on 9952 8222 or www.ryde.nsw.gov.au
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Media contact: Lee Kirkland, Media Officer, City of Ryde, T 9952 8083 M 0434 306 444
