Surrey Celebrates Multiculturalism with Virtual Surrey Fusion Festival and Cultural Video Series

Surrey, BC – In participation with Culture Days, this year’s Surrey Fusion Festival took place virtually followed by a month-long interactive cultural video series on social media. The livestream surpassed 60,000 views on Facebook and YouTube Live, and cultural video series collectively garnered over 45,000 views on Facebook and Instagram.

“This year’s Surrey Fusion Festival celebrations reminded us about the importance of community connection and coming together to celebrate our culturally diverse City,” said Mayor Doug McCallum. “We were able to bring our community together during this uncertain time by providing a virtual interactive, inclusive, and accessible platform to celebrate the food, music and culture of this great city of ours.”

Presented by Coast Capital Savings, the free family-friendly livestream featured cultural entertainment by 20 performers including BC World Music Collective, Buckman Coe, Mad Riddim, and Indigenous hoop dancer and influencer James Jones. Additional highlights included musical entertainment, Surrey history, Indigenous education, kids craft making, cooking segments, and participation from the City of Surrey’s Museum, Heritage and Civic Theatres departments. The livestream also included personal photos and videos submitted by residents across Surrey and the Lower Mainland.

“This event could not be possible without the support of our long-time presenting sponsor of Surrey Fusion Festival, Coast Capital Savings,” said Councillor Laurie Guerra, Chair of the Parks, Recreation and Culture Committee. “We are thankful for their continuous support and contributions over the years that make this wonderfully diverse event possible.”

Following the livestream, Surrey Fusion Festival continued the festivities through an online cultural video series featuring 30 educational videos posted on Surrey Fusion Festival’s social media accounts. The series featured a variety of cooking tutorials including how to make Ecuadorian ceviche, Nepalese momos, Indigenous bannock, Guatemalan horchata, as well as dance, arts and crafts tutorials such as how to Metis jig, tie an Indian sari, make Japanese origami and play the traditional Nigerian game Ayo. All videos posted from September 25 to October 25 are available online at surreyfusionfestival.ca.

This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada in addition to community sponsors. For more information including a full list of videos, visit surreyfusionfestival.ca.