• Ontario
• Greater Toronto Area
• York Region
• Vaughan
• Woodbridge

Muslim Festival of Vaughan 2016-Bridging communities through culture and arts

The team of staff and volunteers

The third annual Muslim Festival of Vaughan (MFV) was held on Saturday, July 23rd, at the Vellore Heritage Area, Woodbridge. MFV is first of its kind Muslim Festival in Vaughan, focused on celebrating the arts, cultural and heritage assets of Muslim Canadians.
This year the festival headed outdoors, and provided Vaughan local Muslim families a great way to enjoy summer festivities while appreciating the diverse Muslim culture.
Councillor Ward 3,Mrs Rosanna De Francesca graced the festival with her presence as Honorary Chair for the third time, while Deputy Mayor Mr Michael Di Biase also attended as Honorary Guest. Both Councillors had a great time mingling with the vendors and local businesses that were present at the festival and congratulated the young dedicated team of MFV on a job well done.
The festival featured bouncy castles for the children, as well as fancy dress shows and stage presentations prepared by them. The children had a great time participating in the scavenger hunt and capture-the-flag games. The event also featured many perfomances, including a dazzling display of Taekwondo by the young class of Master Wong. The food vendors displayed the culinary diversity of Muslims, serving types of food ranging from South Asian and Arabic to Authentic Turkish, as well as the classic fried chicken from Popeyes.
"MFV is an extremely functional source of engaging local Canadians and especially the young Muslim generation to help them learn about, cherish and preserve their ancestral heritage. It also gives them an involved opportunity to experience their cultural beauty as Canadian citizens and helps them build great levels of respect for their ancestors", said CAMP director Farina Siddiqi at MFV 2016.
Canadian Association of Multicultural People (CAMP) & MomLinks support this partnership event celebration as a tribute to this population's contribution to Canada and see this as an integral part of the Muslim progress in Canada. MFV hopes to provide an exceptional opportunity for bridging barriers and building bridges of understanding between Muslim community living in GTA and provides a great sense of respect, harmony and awareness defaming stereotypes through meaningful expression of arts, heritage and cultural entertainment.
The young, dedicated team of MFV hopes this festival grows more in the future, so it can serve its purpose of building bridges between people, and bringing communities together.
The event was covered by Vaughan Citizen and Snapd Woodbridge. We would like to thank the dedicated group of volunteers who helped in making this event a success, and we hope to see all the Muslim families of Vaughan next year as well.

With the Councillors Mrs DeFrancesca, and Mr DiBiase