2014 Pako Festa
One of Australia’s biggest multicultural festivals the Pako Festa returns to the Pakington Street for 2014 on the 22nd of February. The Pako Festa will attract a crowd in the vicinity of 100,000 who will enjoy a wonderful day of food, music, dance and fun.
The highlight of the day will be huge parade down Pakington Street starting at 11:00 AM. This parade will tantalizes all the scences with incredible rythum, colour and vibrancy. Dozens of community groups, many decked out in their amazing national dress wil be taking part in the parade representing six continents of the earth. All celebrating their own unique cultures and customs but coming together as one in a true celebration of cultural diversity, friendship and respect.
After the parade Pakington Street trasforms into a marketplace selling some of the world’s most delicious treats, there will be food from the four corners of the earth. Amongst the great food
there will be market stalls selling a wide range of interesting products and plenty of stages and performance areas where many of the community groups and special guests will entertain the huge crowd during the afternoon.
The West Park at the southern end of the festival site will host the official opening ceromony at 12:00 PM that will include the traditional Welcome to the Land from the our local Wathaurong
Aboriginal Co-Operative, a moving celebration that should not be missed. The welcoming is followed by a full day of song and dance starting with some wonderul Macedonian perfomers and followed by over a dozen other international themed performances.
The Diversitat Stage found behind Pakington Street beside the Geelong West Town Hall will also be home to some incredible cultural perfomances, highlights will include the Geelong Scottish Dance Group at 12:30, the Filipino Social Club of Geelong at 2:35 PM and the incredible rythym of the Geelong South Sudanese community at 3:25 PM. The final act on the stage will be a dance spectacular with Son3 a popular Latin Band around 5:45 PM.
Outside the Petrel Hotel at the norhern end of the festival the day will see some fantastic blues bands inclduing Rory Ellis and the Devils Right Hand opening the afternoon, the McAlpines Fusilers and Brooklyn Blue later in the afternoon. For some magnificent siging and and music head to the Bethel Church, some of the performances will include the Geelong Welsh Ladies Chior, The Geelong Chorale and Congolese community’s Clory of God Choir.
The Chanel 7 Stage outside the West Town Hall is going to be a popular place to meet the stars of Home and Away and 7’s popular cooking show My Kitchen Rules. The My Kitchen Rules Contestant Cook-off starts at 1:30 PM so get yourself a good spot early to catch all the action. Later in the afternoon this stage hosts some fantastic dance events including performances from Rousichi a Russian dance Ensemble and the Melbourne Dance Co, before finishing up with the Latin sounds of Cafe Moreno.
The Geelong West Town Hall will be playing host to two incredible family attractions. Short stageshows celebrating the The Wizard of Oz will take place throuout the afternoon and there will be a walk through Dinosaur Adventure Exhibition running until 5:00 PM.
For those out of town thinking of visiting this great festival, catch the train, the Geelong Railway Station is only a 10 minute walk on the eastern side of festival site.
