Celebration of Culture 2025
Join us for an exciting and vibrant celebration of arts, culture, and diversity at the Celebration of Culture 2025, hosted by the Langley Arts Council. This annual event brings together local and global traditions, showcasing the incredible cultural diversity that makes our community so unique. Experience a full month of live performances, visual art exhibitions, cultural markets, and more!
Event Days
March 8th, 15th, 22nd,28th, 29th 2025.
Location:
Aldergrove Kinsmen Community Centre
26770 29th Ave, Aldergrove, BC V4W 3B8
What to Expect:
This year’s Celebration of Culture is set to be our biggest event yet, featuring:
- Live Performances: Enjoy music, dance, and performances from local and regional artists. From traditional folk dances to contemporary music, there’s something for everyone.
- Cultural Market: Explore a vibrant market with unique, handmade goods, traditional crafts, ethnic foods, and more. Discover cultural artifacts, jewelry, textiles, and delicious international cuisines.
- Workshops and Activities: Participate in hands-on workshops celebrating different artistic traditions and cultural crafts.
- My Heritage Exhibition: View an array of visual art pieces from local artists inspired by cultural diversity which is on display in our Main Hall Gallery and programming space for the Celebration of Culture.
Be sure to check our page regularly as we keep updating the programming!
March 22, 2025
11 - 12 PM - Caribbean Rhythms: Steel Drum Band Experience by Sweet Pan Entertainment, Registration required
12:45 - 1:30 PM - Scottish Experience in Canada: Great Highland Bagpipe and Highland Dancing, Registration required
2:15 - 3:15 PM - Persian Music by Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra, Registration required
For more information and to register for each session, click on the poster(s) below.
March 28, 2025
11:00 am - 1:00 pm - The art of pasta with Mama Marzia, registration required
11:30 - 12:30 PM - Indigenous Plant Medicine Workshop with Chef Sarah Mierau, registration required (Full)
For more information and to register, click on the poster(s) below.
March 29, 2025
11 - 5 PM - Cultural Artisan Market - Join us and shop for unique cultural goods, Food and more! Enjoy Live music throughout the day!
To view the list of Vendors: Click Here
Live Music Performance Schedule:
11 - 1 PM - Intercultural music by Silk Road Duo
1:30 - 2:30 PM - O'Carolan Celtic Ensemble
3 - 5 PM - Nova Sol
No registration required.
Our Supporters
The Arts Council would like to say a big thank you to our supporters for this years event. Without their support, this programming wouldn't be possible.
Meet the 2025 Celebration of Culture Performers
Arnie (Lek’hoosh) Leon
First Nations flute player Arnie (Lek’hoosh) Leon is committed to sharing his culture with all people. He is a member of the Sts’aillers Nation, located in the upper Fraser Valley of British Columbia. The people of the Sts’ailes, meaning the Beating Heart, come from a village halfway up the west side of Harrison Lake. Members of the Sts’ailes take great pride in their culture, ceremonies and spirituality.
Dressed in colourful traditional regalia, Arnie shares his culture through his traditional music. Arnie also works with children as an Aboriginal Support worker with Delta School District.
In addition to solo performances, Arnie also performs with the White Thunder Dance Theatre. The group promotes First Nations culture within their own culture and with all cultures. Based in Chilliwack BC, the theatre troupe is made up of dancers from all over our province, travelling and performing throughout North America, sharing their songs.
In the First Nations culture, the men play the flute to bring themselves back into balance with their surroundings. The calming sounds of the flute provide the perfect soundscape for any event with an Aboriginal theme.
Bagpiper Mike Chisholm & Shot of Scotch Highland Dancers
Mike Chisholm is the executive director of ScotFestBC: The British Columbia Highland Games and Official Piper to Rocky Mountaineer Rail Tours since 2012. He has been a highland bagpiper for more than 40-years, growing up in a vibrant Scottish-immigrant community in northern Nova Scotia surrounded by bagpipers, highland dancers and the Gaelic language.
Mike is joined by Susan Nace, the director of Vancouver’s Shot of Scotch Highland Dancers. This adult dancing group formed in 2013 to highlight and expand the highland dance tradition through performances and education. This workshop will talk about the Scottish immigrant experience in Canada, demonstrate the Great Highland Bagpipe and Highland Dancing, and will teach willing audience members a few basic highland dancing steps.
Boris Sichon
Boris Sichon was born in the Ukraine, where he finished Musical High School, in the study of percussion instruments. He left his hometown for St.Petersburg to continue his musical education in the Academy of Music. During his studies he started working in the St.Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, where he worked with well-known Russian conductors such as Yevgeny Mravinsky, Shostakovich, Badchan, Karapetian and many others.
After graduation from the Academy, Boris was invited to join the Jewish chamber musical theatre in Moscow as a stage musician and actor. After six years, Boris left the theatre for five years of work as a stage musician, dancer, and singer in the main Russian National Folkloric Band. During this period he had an opportunity to visit and perform in 25 different countries, on 5 different continents, where he started to collect traditional local instruments and learned to play from well-known native musicians.
From 1990 onwards Boris had been working with the Footsbarn Travelling Theatre (France) as a musician and actor. He went travelling, collecting instruments, and rare and valuable musical information with the Theatre Company.
He then spent 5 years in Israel, working with Habima National Theatre, teaching at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, writing music for films and plays, as well as performing a great deal.
When Boris came to Canada in 2004 he began performing right away, leading workshops, participating in Festivals (Vancouver Folk Fest, Comox Music Fest, Vancouver Island Folk Fest, Edmonton Folk Fest and etc), playing solo as well as with Yungchen Lhamo, Jerry Douglas, Pavlo, Uzume Taiko, and others, writing music for theatre (was nominated by The JESSIES for Outstanding Sound Design/Original Composition in small Theatre Category with Helen’s Necklace, Pi Theatre).
Boris is the owner of a unique collection of ethnic musical instruments he has compiled travelling around the globe. His collection now comprises over 200 rare and unique musical instruments. A comprehensive list of the items in the collection can be found on this website.
Chef Sarah Meconse Mierau is the founder of Tradish, a culinary initiative dedicated to sharing Traditional Indigenous nourishment while supporting Indigenous food sovereignty, culture, and community. At the Celebration of Culture festival, she will lead a hands-on tea blending workshop, introducing participants to Indigenous ingredients and their significance. Through her work, Chef Sarah fosters a deeper appreciation for Indigenous culinary traditions, connecting people to culture through food.
Naomi Eliana Pommier Steinberg
Born on Canada's supernatural west coast, in beautiful Coast Salish territories, of French and Jewish descent, Naomi Steinberg has brought traditional folk stories, fairy tales and community-based art projects to life in countries around the world since 2001. Naomi believes that to explore a story deeply is to embark on a journey of discovery and play. She is renowned for her ability to bring stories to life using movement, clown, contemplation, and vocal dynamics.
Naomi is currently preparing a Canadian tour to promote the book, which recounts her journey of 382 days and 55,965 kilometers around the globe, by land and sea. Integrating travelogue and philosophical musings, Goosefeather shares the highs and lows of an unforgettable international adventure. To complement Goosefeather's reading, she is offering a children's version of the story in French, or English. The show is inspired by the art of kamishibai, combining storytelling, movement, and imagery. Kamishibai is a traditional Japanese form of storytelling that uses a simple wooden frame with pictures inside, animated by the performer's voice. The skilful use of graphic imagery, voice, and movement make kamishibai a popular form of street entertainment as well as a successful classroom show.
NKWALI
Born Nomathamsanqa Treatie Mkwananzi in the city of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s melting pot of arts and culture, the multi-talented Noma fell in love with the Arts at a tender age. A singer, dancer, actress and composer par excellence who is set for greater heights started performing at the age of seven. And as a sign of what was to come, her first major role at the age of seven was as an extra in the movie Power of One, starring iconic Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman and Zimbabwe’s Alois Moyo, and from there she never looked back.
At 19 (2002) she went to a school of arts where she learnt more about performing Arts and later that year she toured the UK with Zimbabwe’s number one poet Albert Nyathi and Imbongi, performing in festivals like WOMAD and Africa Oye, among others. Noma’s journey continued as she toured Europe in years to come, this time with a Theatre Production at festivals like Zrada, Fringe, Afrika Tage, Kasumama, and Shakespeare until 2006 when she auditioned for Mother Africa Circus. She continued to tour the world, performing in Australia, US, Germany, Singapore, Philippines, Germany, Austria (just to name a few) with Mother Africa Circus from 2006 until 2015 as the lead singer and dancer and during that time she met world-renowned musician Dolly Parton who happens to be one of her idols who encouraged her to keep going as she was impressed by her performances. In November 2015 she went solo under the name NKWALI, performing her compositions and covers by different artists and also launched her first acapella album titled Sithokozile. With this album she holds a Zimbabwe Music Award (ZIMA) for best Acapella album in 2016. She has gone on to promote the album performing live in Austria, Germany, Tanzania, Czech Republic and Canada performing at festivals like Afrika Tage Vienna, Kasumama Tubingen Africa fest, Voice mania and many others. Nkwali has performed in various corporate functions and weddings both in Europe and Africa. She has also worked in the blockbuster concert Hollywood in Vienna in 2017 and 2018. She is now back on a European tour with the Mother Africa Circus show as the lead vocalist and dancer scheduled to run until February 2020. She is also working on a new album titled Themba. The song bird also does music and African dance workshops.
Nova Sol
They are a duo (guitar + sax) playing Brazilian jazz music of the bossa nova /samba style covering pop and original compositions.
O'Carolan Celtic Ensemble
They represent the traditional Celtic music of the British Isles of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. What makes us unique is that we play in a classical style of four part harmony.
O'Carolan Celtic Ensemble have performed together since 2017. Our musicians are classically trained and currently are, or have been, members of Lower Mainland orchestras for many years. We have performed for events in the cities of Cloverdale, Surrey, Langley and White Rock, as well as in seniors' residences and for private events. We are members of PACA/Semiahmoo Arts Society.
Our group's name pays tribute to Turlough O'Carolan, the famous, blind Irish harpist and songwriter of the late 1600's to mid 1700's. We support the theme of cultural celebration both because of our name, and the traditional Celtic music of the British Isles that we perform.
Silk Road Duo
Experience the magic of Silk Road Duo filled with a global vision of acoustic music and songs. Featuring an incredible blend of instruments—the enchanting pipa, soulful hulusi flute, fiery guitar, exotic oud, and dynamic world percussion—this celebration transcends boundaries and unites cultures through the power of sound.
Sutrisno Hartana is a Javanese performing artist (dalang, gamelan musician and composer, as well as arts educator). He has completed his doctoral degree in Art History and Visual Studies at the University of Victoria in Canada in 2017. He holds an MA in Ethnomusicology from the University of British Columbia (2006). As a Javanese performing artist, he graduated with his bachelor degree from the Indonesian Institute of Arts in Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia (1992). In 2004, the King of Paku Alaman Palace granted him the title “Mas Lurah Lebda Swara” making him a court musician at
the Paku Alaman Palace in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He has toured, performed and taught internationally in both traditional and contemporary performances throughout Asia, Europe, and North America. Sutrisno has been teaching at the School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, BC, Canada. He has also taught at Ningbo University in China. Many of his students in China call him as Sute Loushi.
Sweet Pan entertainment
They provide a full Steel Drum (Steel pan) band experience with Vancouver's only All Steel Pan band. This includes a cultural tour of Caribbean flavored styles including Calypso, Reggae, Soca, Brazilian and original content to name a few with singing and audience engagement.