History of the Festival

The Multicultural Festival was originally started by the Multicultural Centre in 1978. For ten years the Multicultural Festival was held downtown and was a very successful event.

The success and encouragement from community members at the 1997 festival led the Board of Directors at the Multicultural Centre to revive The Multicultural Festival, however, some important changes were made. The Festival was moved to Riverside Park, the weekend of the festival was moved to the first weekend in June in order to avoid conflicts with other community events and the Festival partnered with the City of Guelph and other local business’ in order to make improvements to Riverside Park. This allowed  the festival to accommodate more food vendors, more people and become more versatile in general, thereby benefiting all community groups who wished to participate in the event.