Ottawa's Heritage Day celebrations this year are among the most expansive the city has organized, a reflection of how seriously the capital takes its role as a genuinely multicultural city, and of the work local cultural organizations have put into building programming that represents the full range of communities that call Ottawa home.
What's Happening
The main Heritage Day event is a free outdoor festival at City Hall's plaza on the Saturday closest to Heritage Day (the third Monday of February), running 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The program includes traditional music and dance performances from 15 different cultural communities. Lebanese dabke, Filipino tinikling, Indigenous drum circles, Haitian kompa, Scottish highland dancing, and more.
Inside City Hall, the celebration continues with visual art exhibitions from artists representing Ottawa's South Asian, East African, and Latin American communities. The lobby has been converted into a temporary gallery space for the weekend.
The Cultural Market
One of the most popular elements of Heritage Day is the cultural market: 40 vendors selling food, crafts, and goods representing communities from across the globe. For many Ottawa residents, it's the best opportunity of the year to discover restaurants and food producers they didn't know existed in the city.
Why Heritage Day Matters
Ottawa is one of the most culturally diverse cities in Canada, a fact that sometimes gets overshadowed by the federal government focus. Heritage Day is a reminder that the people who live here come from everywhere, and that the city is richer for it.
All events are free and open to the public. Transit access is excellent. City Hall is directly on the Confederation Line at the Rideau stop.
Source: CBC Arts / RSS
