Sarnia celebrates culture and diversity at New Year’s Eve festival

Courtney DePelsmaeker had a quick lesson in Irish dancing Tuesday.

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The Sarnia mom, visiting the second annual Festival of Cultures with her three daughters, was among the few who stepped up to try out some dance moves with Sarnia School of Irish Dance instructors.

“It was a little energetic,” she said afterwards, in line for balloon animals for her kids at the event at the Suncor Agora in Centennial Park New Year’s Eve.

“I had to keep up, but it was fun,” she said.

Hopes were to match the about 300 attendees who turned out in year one for fireworks, food and live entertainment at the event promoting diversity and creating connections between locals and newcomers to the community, said Stephanie Ferrara, with the Sarnia-Lambton Local Immigration Partnership.

Tuesday’s event, via the partnership, Center Communautaire Francophone de Sarnia, Lambton College and Tourism Sarnia-Lambton, featured 13 vendors with international foods and other wares, Ferrera said.

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Among them was Kirti Kapoor, who was selling traditional Indian jewelry and other personal ornaments through her business, Meraki Jewels.

The trained recreational therapist who arrived in Sarnia in 2016 as an international student at Lambton College said it’s her first year participating in the event that also highlights different cultures’ New Year’s Eve celebrations.

“I’m so excited,” she said.

Other cultures represented included Spanish, French, Pakistani and African, Ferrera said, noting cookie decorating with local Cub Scouts and a slideshow featuring different cultural celebrations also were among the attractions.

The weather about an hour into the event was blustery, but people were bundled up and enjoying themselves, Ferrera said.

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“We’re seeing lots of young families, which is fantastic,” she said.

“That’s something we really want to draw here is young families, because we’re hoping that we can have the kids interested to ask questions about what they’re seeing.”

The festival also featured a Tapestry of Voices exhibit on how languages ​​in Canada — well over 100 including Indigenous and those spoken by immigrants — interact and evolve, and how they also can be preserved and protected.

The festival was first introduced in 2023 as part of a broader effort to boost immigration and newcomer retention in Sarnia-Lambton.

“We have a growing, diverse population. . . We want to provide opportunity for people to connect,” Ferrera said. “That’s why these events are really important.”

Hopes are to grow it in other Lambton communities in years to come, she said, though it’ll be up to willing host communities how and when celebrations are held.

“It depends on resources and level of interest,” Ferrera said.

“But really, New Year’s is such an intense and incredible time to celebrate human life, so that’s where we’re at.”

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