Festa fun for everyone

Now in its 34th year, Pako Festa is the biggest annual multicultural festival of its kind in Australia.
Held each year on the last weekend in February in Geelong West’s cosmopolitan Pakington Street, the festa incorporates an extravagant street parade featuring around 90 floats, hundreds of performers representing 45 ethnic communities and around 60 other community groups and organisations.
The street is lined with stalls selling traditional foods and arts and crafts, and six separate stages in the precinct offer performances of music and dance as well as interactive workshops and exhibitions.
Pako Festa has become Victoria’s premier multicultural event, attracting over 100,000 patrons in each of its past three years.
The event is estimated to inject close to $8.5 million dollars into the local economy over the course of the day.
Next weekend’s Pako Festa will again offer a unique opportunity to socialise and celebrate in an arena of ethnic diversity and harmony while gaining an appreciation of the great variety of artistic and cultural expression within Geelong’s multicultural community.
The street parade from 11am “embodies colour, culture and celebration and is one of the most important events at Pako Festa”, say organisers.
“Encapsulating the very essence of our nation – diversity, dynamism, colourfulness, and, above all else co-operation, community inter-connectedness, creativity and the promotion of our humanity, Pako Festa sends a strong message in these troubled times in which we live: our preparedness to interact with, work with and treat each other with dignity and respect, demolishing the walls of division and conflicts; bringing everyone together in a spirit of understanding, acceptance and celebration of life itself.”