GlobalFest
Encyclopedia
GlobalFest is an annual cultural celebration in Calgary
, Alberta
, Canada
.
The festival has been held every August since 2003, and is organised by The Calgary Fireworks Festival Society'.
GlobalFest consists of different components: the OneWorld Festival (with up to 24 Cultural Pavilions, 14 ethnic food kiosks, and a 12 vendor Night Market) and the International Fireworks Festival (with up to 5 fireworks presentations from 5 international teams).
Informed by the aims of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and its International Coalition of Cities Against Racism Initiative, the Human Rights Forum aims to highlight the Canadian Coalition of Municipalities Against Racism and Discrimination’s (CCMARD) ten common commitments. For more information, please view the CCMARD handbook by following the link http://www.unesco.ca/en/commission/resources/documents/callcoalitioneng.pdf.
The 2010 Human Rights Forum took place from May 3 to 7 at the John Dutton Theatre within the Calgary Central Public Library.
The theme topic for the 2010 Human Rights Forum focused on Youth addressing the following commitments:
UNITY Charity is a youth led and artist driven anti-violence group from Toronto that specializes in urban performance assemblies and artistic workshops. UNITY seeks to provides positive artistic outlets for youth to express themselves instead of expressing themselves through violence, drug use, stereotyping, bullying and other negative forms of self-expression.
Festival is held at Elliston Park in Southeast Calgary and is presented by Trico Homes. Each night of the festival showcases a different nation. Participants attend by invitation of the organizers. Pyrotechnic displays take place over Elliston Park and are synchronized to music. Thusly, these choreographed pyrotechnical arrangements are referred to as 'pyromusicals'.
In 2009 the organizers introduced a variety of artistic requirements that all fireworks designers must incorporate into their designs. In past years the fireworks were presented in the style of a competition with a competitor being limited to winning two years in a row before a mandatory year-long break would be implemented. As of 2009, the pyro-musical presentations have been presented in a festival process rather than as a competition. This new process has been introduced to better meet artistic and funding criteria set forward by various backing partners as well as to help better fulfill GlobalFest's mandate of promoting cultural diversity.
Over the years several countries have participated in the pyro-musical aspect of GlobalFest: Canada, USA
, Mexico
, India
, South Africa
, Germany
, Portugal
, Hong Kong, China, Spain, Italy and Japan
.
New artistic requirements included a compulsory piece of music that must be incorporated by each competitor and a 25% minimum of each competitor's music that must be native to the representing country. This was done to challenge the designers, provide a better pyromusical experience to the audience, and better meet the mandate of GlobalFest as a Multi-Cultural Festival.
GlobalFest 2011 will feature the following countries:
, Hispanic America
, Middle East
, Caribbean
, Francophone
, India
, Italy
, Mexico
, Scotland
, Ukraine
and Vietnam
. The OneWorld festival was originally co-organized with the International Avenue Arts and Culture Centre.
In 2007, the pavilions were grouped together for the first time at Penbrooke Meadows Community Association and was visited by over 10,000 GlobalFest patrons.
In 2008, a previously protected area of Elliston Park was opened up to the organizers and the move was made to transfer the cultural pavilions to Elliston Park and re-launch the OneWorld Village. The cultural organizations are also provided the opportunity to present their nations' foods in separate food kiosks, located adjacent to the OneWorld Village.
GlobalFest patrons can now enjoy the OneWorld Festival in conjunction with the International Fireworks Festival each evening at the same location in Elliston Park. Cultural stages will feature music, dance and other artists presented by the cultural pavilion organizers within the OneWorld Village. The Calgary Foundation Centennial stage will also be presenting various artists to those patrons on the south side of Elliston Park. A third stage has been added to the site located in the OneWorld Cafe and International Bar. The Cafe stage will provide entertainment nightly prior to the fireworks as well as for an hour following the fireworks presentation.
The site chosen for the fireworks display, Elliston Lake, is the second largest lake in Calgary (after Glenmore Reservoir
), and was created close to a landfill site in 1978. The land has been owned by the city of Calgary since 1960 The area was used for agriculture for ten years, and Ellison Park opened in 1994. Over the years the park has been expanded by reclaiming land from the nearby landfill, bringing the total area to over 410 hectares, making it the city's second largest park (after Nose Hill).
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
The festival has been held every August since 2003, and is organised by The Calgary Fireworks Festival Society'.
GlobalFest consists of different components: the OneWorld Festival (with up to 24 Cultural Pavilions, 14 ethnic food kiosks, and a 12 vendor Night Market) and the International Fireworks Festival (with up to 5 fireworks presentations from 5 international teams).
Human Rights Forum
The GlobalFest Human Rights Forum presented by TD Bank Financial Group is a Calgary-based, week-long event that invites various speakers, guests, and experts to discuss pertinent issues relating to human rights and diversity. The Human Rights Forum seeks to build community dialogue by addressing various topics of racism and discrimination.Informed by the aims of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and its International Coalition of Cities Against Racism Initiative, the Human Rights Forum aims to highlight the Canadian Coalition of Municipalities Against Racism and Discrimination’s (CCMARD) ten common commitments. For more information, please view the CCMARD handbook by following the link http://www.unesco.ca/en/commission/resources/documents/callcoalitioneng.pdf.
The 2010 Human Rights Forum took place from May 3 to 7 at the John Dutton Theatre within the Calgary Central Public Library.
The theme topic for the 2010 Human Rights Forum focused on Youth addressing the following commitments:
- Increase vigilance against systemic and individual racism and discrimination.
- Support policing services in their efforts to be exemplary institutions in combating racism and discrimination.
- Inform and support individuals who experience racism and discrimination.
- Support measures to challenge racism and discrimination and promote diversity and equal opportunity in the education sector and in other forms of learning.
- Promote respect, understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity and the inclusion of Aboriginal and racialized communities into the cultural fabric of the municipality.
Youth Forum
The Human Rights Forum extended its programming in 2010 to include the GlobalFest Youth Forum, an additional program that includes youth directly. The 2010 GlobalFest Youth Forum featured UNITY Charity Presenting their “Hip Hop Away From Violence” program to five high schools in Calgary from April 26 to 30.UNITY Charity is a youth led and artist driven anti-violence group from Toronto that specializes in urban performance assemblies and artistic workshops. UNITY seeks to provides positive artistic outlets for youth to express themselves instead of expressing themselves through violence, drug use, stereotyping, bullying and other negative forms of self-expression.
Fireworks Festival
The International FireworksFireworks
Fireworks are a class of explosive pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. The most common use of a firework is as part of a fireworks display. A fireworks event is a display of the effects produced by firework devices...
Festival is held at Elliston Park in Southeast Calgary and is presented by Trico Homes. Each night of the festival showcases a different nation. Participants attend by invitation of the organizers. Pyrotechnic displays take place over Elliston Park and are synchronized to music. Thusly, these choreographed pyrotechnical arrangements are referred to as 'pyromusicals'.
In 2009 the organizers introduced a variety of artistic requirements that all fireworks designers must incorporate into their designs. In past years the fireworks were presented in the style of a competition with a competitor being limited to winning two years in a row before a mandatory year-long break would be implemented. As of 2009, the pyro-musical presentations have been presented in a festival process rather than as a competition. This new process has been introduced to better meet artistic and funding criteria set forward by various backing partners as well as to help better fulfill GlobalFest's mandate of promoting cultural diversity.
Over the years several countries have participated in the pyro-musical aspect of GlobalFest: Canada, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, Hong Kong, China, Spain, Italy and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
New artistic requirements included a compulsory piece of music that must be incorporated by each competitor and a 25% minimum of each competitor's music that must be native to the representing country. This was done to challenge the designers, provide a better pyromusical experience to the audience, and better meet the mandate of GlobalFest as a Multi-Cultural Festival.
GlobalFest 2011 will feature the following countries:
- August 19, 2011 - China
- August 21, 2011 - Philippines
- August 23, 2011 - South Korea
- August 25, 2011 - Italy (Returning Nation)
- August 27, 2011 - GlobalFest Finale (Presented by Canada's own Alain Carbonneau)
OneWorld Festival
In the early years, GlobalFest featured cultural pavilions scattered throughout Calgary, usually in various community halls. The pavilions would often include ethnic food, displays and entertainment. Cultural Pavilions included themes from AfricaAfrica
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, Hispanic America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
, Francophone
Francophone
The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
and Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
. The OneWorld festival was originally co-organized with the International Avenue Arts and Culture Centre.
In 2007, the pavilions were grouped together for the first time at Penbrooke Meadows Community Association and was visited by over 10,000 GlobalFest patrons.
In 2008, a previously protected area of Elliston Park was opened up to the organizers and the move was made to transfer the cultural pavilions to Elliston Park and re-launch the OneWorld Village. The cultural organizations are also provided the opportunity to present their nations' foods in separate food kiosks, located adjacent to the OneWorld Village.
GlobalFest patrons can now enjoy the OneWorld Festival in conjunction with the International Fireworks Festival each evening at the same location in Elliston Park. Cultural stages will feature music, dance and other artists presented by the cultural pavilion organizers within the OneWorld Village. The Calgary Foundation Centennial stage will also be presenting various artists to those patrons on the south side of Elliston Park. A third stage has been added to the site located in the OneWorld Cafe and International Bar. The Cafe stage will provide entertainment nightly prior to the fireworks as well as for an hour following the fireworks presentation.
History
The idea for the festival started in 1994, when the newly established Calgary Fireworks Festival Society started looking for a safe firework launch site. It took until 2001 to discover Elliston Park and its lake. At the same time, the International Avenue Arts and Culture Centre was making plans for a multicultural festival in Forest Lawn. The two non-profit societies presented plans for a joint festival at Calgary's International Avenue Business Revitalisation Zone (a city department), and the festival began in 2003, with an audience of almost 100,000, including city residents and tourists.The site chosen for the fireworks display, Elliston Lake, is the second largest lake in Calgary (after Glenmore Reservoir
Glenmore Reservoir
The Glenmore Reservoir is a large artificial reservoir on the Elbow River in the southwest quadrant of Calgary, Alberta. The Glenmore Dam is the concrete structure that holds back the reservoir. The reservoir is a primary source of drinking water to the city...
), and was created close to a landfill site in 1978. The land has been owned by the city of Calgary since 1960 The area was used for agriculture for ten years, and Ellison Park opened in 1994. Over the years the park has been expanded by reclaiming land from the nearby landfill, bringing the total area to over 410 hectares, making it the city's second largest park (after Nose Hill).