Montreal scraps Week-ends du Monde festival with only 2 months notice for participants
CBC
For the third straight year, the Week-ends du Monde festival at Parc Jean-Drapeau has been cancelled, but this time the participants did not see it coming.
Cultural organizations that take part in the event are scratching their heads after the city of Montreal pulled the plug on this year's edition with only two months notice.
The 2021 and 2020 editions were cancelled due to the pandemic. But participants only found out the city was scrapping this year's event last week.
"I'm very dispappointed," said Berta Hamana, who usually helps organize the Venezuelan showcase at Week-ends du Monde. She moved to Canada ten years ago.
"This is a way for us to show our culture, food and to meet together. And after two years of pandemic, people were expecting this."
Montreal and the Société du Parc-Jean Drapeau blame the cancellation on the labour shortage and increasing costs for organizing events.
"After two years of COVID, everywhere, even when you go to the supermarket, you know everything is more expensive. You know there is not enough people to work," she said.
"Why did they wait until two months before Week-ends du Monde to tell us that?"
The event, which is typically held across several weekends in the month of July, draws tens of thousands of people to Parc Jean-Drapeau.
"It's frustrating," said Cesar Maldonado, the president of the Association Fierté Latino-américaine, who helps set up the Colombian kiosk at the festival. "It's a great occasion to create ties with other cultures."
Maldonado also said it's a great way for lesser-known artists and small restaurants to gain exposure.
In a statement, a spokesperson of the Société du Parc Jean-Drapeau told CBC News the budget set aside for Week-ends du Monde was not enough to cover the surging cost of organizing it.
"In addition to a shortage of specialized labour, the calls for tender made us realize that there would have been a serious lack of event equipment," the statement read.
The statement mentioned sound systems, fences and lighting equipment as examples.
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