Around the world for $20 - the International Festival Caravan

For nine days each June, Torontonians can tour the world without leaving home.

This budget-priced, globe-trotting opportunity comes courtesy of I Festival Caravan, when Toronto's many ethnic communities--which proudly celebrate their roots--put on a show and invite everyone to join the fun ...

Caravan was the idea of Leon and Zena Kossar, who are still organizing and running the festival. The Kossars thought it was a shame that the general public never saw ethnic community events. Thirty years later, in 1997, 32 Caravan pavilions, each named after a major city, opened their doors to cultural tourists eager to view displays, shop for souvenirs, sample food and drink and watch the entertainment provided. All you need is a passport, which is available at any pavilion and costs $20 for nine days (or $10 for one day). With a bit of planning, it's easy to visit three or four "cities" in an evening. A car is not absolutely necessary since many are conveniently located in the heart of the city, or on public transit routes.

Visitors are usually welcomed by the "mayor" or the "princess" of that particular city, for example, Odessa, Cairo or Rome. Princesses are always dressed in the colourful, elaborate costumes of their particular culture.

If you think you already know all about a particular culture, you could be wrong. This year's Seville pavilion was said to feature 20 different types of dances from various regions of Spain.

A visit to the 1997 Seoul pavilion (at the Hanin Centre on Leslie Street) revealed a beautiful community centre nestled among the trees on a hilltop. Mayor Dug-Jo Yoon greeted us while a young man in ceremonial garb opened the door. Inside we found Taekwondo demonstrations, displays on Korean tourism, consumer goods, and art, plus an opportunity to get our names written by a Korean calligrapher. In another room, elderly men in traditional hats and robes were playing "chess" Korean style. We purchased a few delicious items from the menu of kalbi kui, pulgogi, mandu and chapchae, being careful not to eat too much, as there was still the nearby Tokyo pavilion on our agenda. Then it was time for the 30-minute show of traditional Korean dance and music which was colourful and spectacular.

Caravan pavilions draw their performers from among the local citizenry and also from overseas. Betsy Abarquez, who handles public relations for the Manila pavilion, says that their excellent Fiesta dancers and singers are all from the Toronto Filipino community.

At the Sydney-Aukland pavilion, located in the Tranzac Club, mayor Kevin Boiler introduced expat Aussie performers who warmed up the crowd with popular novelty numbers like Jake the Peg (with the extra leg). For lovers of serious music, a chap played the "lagerphone", a picturesque home-made musical instrument which defies description. Then the Maori dancers took the stage, in a colourful, humourous and vibrant display of aboriginal culture.

Not only is Caravan fun, it has had a positive impact on Torontonian's perceptions of the ethnic communities that make up the metropolis. Toronto mayor Barbara Hall, a big booster of the city's ethnic diversity, says, "Caravan gives us an opportunity to travel the world without having to get on a plane."

RELATED ARTICLE: NOTES ON CARAVAN

Caravan was arguably the first of all Canadian originated events that said to citizens and tourists alike: "The world really is a global village. Come visit us and find out!" In effect, some Torontonians began to celebrate our diversity three years before the federal government proclaimed an official policy of multiculturalism.

My wife Anne and I, along with a handful of others organized a multicultural pavilion at the Toronto Press Club a few years ago--England, Scotland, Germany, Hong Kong, Toronto, Portugal and Newfoundland. Having worked there every night, I found the spirit in which visitors approached the event indicative of what the polls tell us. While a majority of Canadians may flown on "official multiculturalism" the same majority supports Canada's diversity.

That doesn't mean to say we should scrap official multiculturalism which today, and rightly so, is more about the still urgent need to promote equality and good race relations than funding folk festivals. We all know that, interrracially speaking, Canada is still far from Utopia. But the two ideas go hand in hand with ethno-cultural communities taking the responsibility of organizing events like Toronto's Caravan and Caribana and Winnipeg's Folklorama.

COPYRIGHT 1997 Performing Arts and Entertainment in Canada
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group