Ottawa Ethno-Cultural Festival

Celebrating culture through performance, food, and community connection.

Translation note: This English version is translated from the original Chinese activity recap published by Harmony Hub Ottawa.

On August 26, 2026, the Ethno-Cultural Exhibition & Festival, organized by the Ottawa Ethno-Cultural Seniors Network (OESN), a project of the Social Planning Council of Ottawa (SPCO), was held at the Rideau Community Hub.

Despite the bright sun and hot weather, older adults and volunteers from Harmony Hub Ottawa took part with enthusiasm. Some older adults travelled to the event by public transit, while participants carried flags representing different cultures and joined people from communities across Ottawa for an afternoon of cultural exchange.

Performances and Community Sales

The day featured a variety of performances. Older adult performers had prepared carefully in advance, including arranging dedicated costumes for their programs and changing outfits between performances.

Changing costumes, preparing backstage, and performing in the heat required considerable effort. Participants helped one another with clothing and preparations and completed their performances with care, receiving an enthusiastic response from the audience.

Beyond the stage, some older adults also brought items they had prepared for sale at the event. Flags, performances, conversations, and community sales gave people different ways to take part and brought more of the participants’ own skills and interests into the festival.

Active Participation and Cultural Sharing

The enthusiasm continued beyond the performances. Through clothing, performances, crafts, food, and conversation, participants shared aspects of their culture with people from different backgrounds.

Older adults also helped one another with costume changes, organizing items, and other preparations throughout the event.

After the festival, participants continued sharing photos and reflections in the community WeChat group. One older adult even wrote a short poem:

The summer sun shines bright over Ottawa,
Older adults share their talents among many cultures.
Harmony Hub friends lend helping hands,
Chinese arts and skills are too many to tell.

From arriving at the venue and taking part in performances to continuing the conversation afterward, this active involvement turned the festival into an opportunity for older adults to connect with one another, share their interests, and contribute their experience.

Food, Sharing, and Cultural Exchange

There were also many memorable details throughout the day. A number of older adults voluntarily prepared homemade snacks and food to share with others at the event.

Food, clothing, art, and cultural flags made conversations across different cultural backgrounds more natural and welcoming.

For Harmony Hub Ottawa, the value of the day could be seen in these forms of participation: older adults were willing to step out, take part in community life, and share their time, skills, interests, and culture with others. A single event became an opportunity to meet, stay involved, and build stronger community connections.

Thanks and Looking Ahead

Thank you to all the older adults and volunteers who participated, prepared performances, shared food, contributed items for sale, and supported the event.

We also thank SPCO and OESN for providing this opportunity for cultural exchange and community participation.

We look forward to more opportunities for older adults to come together, meet one another, share their experience, and build connections across cultures.