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2024 Carrousel of the Nations kicks off second weekend · Kvetch & Release

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  You know, there's the start to the summer in Windsor and it is always
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  marked by one of my favorite events, quite frankly, Carousel of Nations.
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  And this marks the second weekend of twenty twenty four Carousel of Nations. Get
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  this in its forty ninth year. That blows me away. Joining me right
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  now to discuss this second weekend and what the festival means for the community as
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  it's wrapping up. It's forty ninth the year. Is the executive director of
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  the Multicultural Council of Windsor, Essex, which puts on Carousel of Nations,
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  Fred Francis, who is also our Ward one City councilor Fred. How you
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  doing good? John? How are you? I'm doing great. I'm just
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  so excited for another weekend of great food as a lee, I mean,
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  the first weekend we can have asked for better weather and the numbers you're talking
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  about tens of thousands of people visited all the carousels that first weekend, so
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  we're expecting the same thing this weekend. And you know it's the wrap up.
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  So we have twenty villages this weekend, thirteen new villages from weekend one,
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  so it's a nice little wrap up to caresel of nations. Oh absolutely.
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  Now, can I ask you a question? Do you have a favorite
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  I love home, Old John. It's like as a parent, what's your
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  favorite child? We're so brave. Yeah, Well, they're listening right,
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  so all the different cultural representatives are listening in right now. So I don't
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  want anyone to get mad at me, which is fair. It's a very
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  diplomatic way to go about doing things, very smart. I'll ask you again
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  at the back end of the interview and see if you change your mind.
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  I could always say the Lebanese village and just just show my bias, right,
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  show my bias. Yeah, okay, and that works out. Well,
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  We'll let you have that one. It's not even a handicap, okay.
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  Exactly. We're talking about a incredibly unique event, not just because it
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  brings together so many different nations and cultures and great food, but it's also
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  spread across the community as a whole, and it's a it's a community institution,
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  almost a community figure. People come to look forward to this forty nine
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  years is just mind boggling, absolutely, and you know, people set their
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  calendar to this, and like you said, it's like the official start of
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  summer and it's such a wonderful thing to be able to do. You could
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  literally travel the world without even leaving your neighborhood and being able to do that,
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  it's a free of that. That's something we've heard from Weekend One is
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  like, you know, we just love the fact that this is free.
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  Obviously, if you want to buy food, drink or whatever or merchandise,
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  you can, but if you just want to show up, enjoy the camaraderie,
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  enjoy the vibe, enjoy the atmosphere, enjoy the entertainment, it's all
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  free for you. And people really appreciate that. Yeah, absolutely, especially
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  with how expensive some things are these days. And it really speaks to our
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  community that, you know, everyone is able to come together, that we
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  have so many different cultures that we're able to celebrate. Not every community in
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  Canada can claim to have as much multiculturalism as we can. It's why the
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  festival works as well as it does. Absolutely, and we're so fortunate,
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  like you said, forty nine years, you know, you only have to
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  tune into the Evening used to see all the strife and conflict you see around
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  the world, and we're so lucky to live in a peaceful country like Canada.
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  We're so lucky to live in a diverse city like Windsor, in a
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  region like Windsor Essex, right where we're able to go to the Bavarian village,
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  the Mexican village, the Middle Eastern village, the Persian village, is
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  Scottish, but whatever village you want, and you're able to do it peacefully.
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  Everyone's showing each other's culture with respect and appreciation, and people are really
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  seeing people as people. You know, it's not about politics, it's not
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  about religion. It's really breaking down any barriers of division and seeing one another
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  as fellow human beings. And that's how we battle racism. That's how we
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  battle discrimination and bigotry, and that's how we get to understand each other on
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  a human level, and that's where understanding can happen, and that's where we
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  could build from. Carousel of Nations is really the embodiment of build longer tables
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  and take down your fences, or whatever the way that that phrase actually goes.
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  I'm butchering it right now on live radio. Imagine though, that there's
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  one village that's not listed on your website that is incredibly important to be putting
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  on an event like this, and it's the village of volunteers to pull something
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  like this off. Again, this is a huge event, not just because
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  of its physical footprint, but also just the logistics involved in pulling together all
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  of these different cultural villages, thousands of volunteers. And I have to say
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  thank you to each of the villages. You know, we work with them
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  at their Multicultural Council year round and they do tremendous work. You know,
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  talking to members from the Polish village and they were telling me that they made
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  ten thousand parogies by hand just the last weekend alone. So you can only
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  imagine the amount of love and hard work that goes into making ten thousand parogies.
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  But you see it at the Greek village, you see it at the
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  Indian village, you see it at the Mexican village, you see it all
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  the different villages. It's all brought to you by volunteers that are proud of
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  their culture, want to share their culture with you and take the time to
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  put it all together through food, music, drink, and the overall environment
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  so people could come and learn about their culture and walk away more informed and
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  more appreciative, and that really showcases the strength of our own community that we
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  have so many of those volunteers that live with us, right, but also
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  make up our community and really enrich our own community, that we get to
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  draw on all those different cultural aspects and really call them our own. I've
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  got to imagine, obviously, at the Multicultural Council, you guys deal with
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  the newcomer community on a regular basis, some coming here through the choices of
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  their own accord, others because they have been forced out of their homes and
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  for whatever reasons. I have to imagine then, what people come here and
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  they see an event like this. It's got to be surprising them to them
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  to see just how well celebrated all cultures are. If they're coming from places
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  that have, you know, maybe persecuted or discriminated against cultures, maybe that's
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  why they ended up leaving. Absolutely, it's the number one you know.
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  I had one person tell me it's literally the number one choice that they came
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  here is stability and peace. And I can pray whichever way I want to
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  pray. I could live whichever way I want to live, and I'm able
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  to do so peacefully as long as I'm contributing to society. I'm following all
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  the laws. You know, I have an ability to work hard, make
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  prosperity for my family and hopefully my kids can grow up in a better environment
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  than I did. I hear that on a constant basis. Everyone that the
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  MCC hears that on a constant basis. And you know, we take it
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  for granted because we're afforded to and we're fortunate enough to. But you'd be
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  surprised how many people aren't able to live in a peaceful environment and able to
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  go to school when they want to go to school, live the way they
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  want to live, pray they want to want the way they want to pray,
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  and they could you know, work, educate themselves and prosper to the
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  limit of their own potential. And that is what makes Windsor Essex and Canada
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  as a whole extremely attractive to newcomers from around the world. And we're incredibly
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  fortunate to have them coming here to you know, enrich our culture and you
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  know, join the country that we have it. It's what makes us a
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  really lovely place to live. Fred I'll ask you one more time, what's
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  your favorite one carousel of Nations dot com. You could go make that decision
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  for yourself. Oh, they're all listed on Carousel of Nations dot com.
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  It's not. It doesn't matter which one's my favorite one. It matters which
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  one's your favorite one. Oh wow, ten out of ten. Very good.
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  I'm almost disappointed you pulled that off there at the end. Executive director
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  of the Multicultural Council of Windsor, Essex, Ward one Councilor Fred Francis,
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  and a lover of all of the villages of Carousel of Nations. Thanks for
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  your time, Thank you, cheers. John Letkey here on AM eight hundred CKLW