“Tastes of the Hill”--a Multicultural Fest

 On one of the last Sundays of summer, we went to Richmond Hill to check out the Tastes of the Hill festival. There were several shows slated for the day which began with the national anthem and a message from the mayor. The “Taste of Scotland” performance of the Richmond Hill Centennial Pipe band was quite interesting as it is not often we see bag-pipers in kilts. It was a good, non-TV exposure for the kids. The rest of the entertainment, which went on for the duration of the afternoon, featured other cultures—African, Indian, Caribbean, Italian and Chinese.

At the main stage area as the pipers wait to perform

Holding a festival with a multicultural theme was a good idea. However, we felt vendors for the food village and the intercultural village (where they have the retail booths) were on the thin side. In the food village, the most interesting booth was the Hawaiian BBQ with its stall decked out like a hut. It had the longest line up in the village. There was also a Caribbean vendor serving some curry and jerk chicken, as well as a Samosa hut. Since our most recent recollection of food stalls is the Asian Night Market, even if many booths were available (serving sushi, pizza, hotdogs, roasted corn, etc) in this event, it seemed too few for us. But, that might not be a fair comparison…

The retail booths also did not feature the diversity that I was expecting. I was really hoping to see a lot of interesting goods from different countries. And while there was a booth offering traditional Indian henna tattoos and others selling artwork (such as the Mill Pond gallery), the goods did not inspire a shopping spree.

The children’s activity area with bouncy castles also had a charge of $10 per person (all day play) or $25 for a family. Other events would typically offer this for free! Of course, “free” meant longer line ups, whereas here, the children could really play all day! The volunteers were great, though--helping folks find parking space and making themselves available for questions.  All in all, Tastes of the Hill was just an okay event which supported a couple of local charities.

Children's activity area

The great thing with going to this event, however, was that we discovered Richmond Green Park (where the event was held). It was such a lovely park with gardens in full bloom. The playground was new and the equipment was interesting, not your typical seesaw or swing. The girls had a great time on the giant metal caterpillar.

Richmond Green park playground

Then, we headed off to the gardens to see varieties upon varieties of multi-colored flowers that were guaranteed to brighten up anyone’s day! There was even a section where you can have a wedding ceremony! Yes, it was that…floral!

Wedding garden

Featuring so many cultures in one event is but one of the amazing features of Canadian society.  The fact that events like this usually support charities makes them even better. But to hold an event in such a beautiful venue, now that makes it something to remember.