Hawkesbury multicultural festival: two days to celebrate cultures in harmony

Two days. One square. A hundred faces. The Multicultural Festival returns on June 27 and 28, 2025, to Hawkesbury to weave, between drums and laughter, the threads of a vibrant, festive, and welcoming Francophone community. 

What is culture, really?

That’s the question we’re asking you today. And perhaps each person has their own answer, their own perspective. A childhood dish. A mother tongue. A song passed down through generations. A scent, a dance. Here, culture isn’t something you define — it’s something you experience.

And for two days, June 27 and 28, 2025, the Town of Hawkesbury invites you to experience it… together. A mosaic of cultures that fills the city with color, rhythm, and diverse voices.

The Multicultural Festival, free and open to everyone, is more than just an event — it’s an opportunity to go beyond coexistence, to build connections, and to celebrate our shared humanity in its most vibrant form. Behind this initiative is a clear intent: to make our community a true place of welcome.

As Marc Lecompte, who led the feasibility study with the firm Unventix, notes:

Two days to celebrate what unites us

For many newcomers to Canada, putting your hands in the soil isn’t just gardening — it’s an act of reconnection. A bridge between the roots left behind and the new ones trying to grow in a different land.

To grow something is to speak a universal language — one of seasons, of patience.
In many cultures, the garden is memory, ritual, continuity. In Hawkesbury, the community garden has become, for many, a place of belonging — of reconnecting with land, tradition, and identity, often paused during the adaptation process.

A festival that welcomes, connects, and celebrates

Since its inception, the Hawkesbury Multicultural Festival has returned each summer as a moment out of time — a moment to listen, discover, and connect.

On June 27 and 28, Place des Pionniers will turn into an open-air stage, where every culture, every accent, and every drumbeat becomes an invitation to meet. This festival was born from the Community Advisory Council of Hawkesbury’s Welcoming Francophone Community (CFA) initiative — to create not just a space where differences are tolerated, but where they are celebrated. A space where everyone belongs — without needing to erase their roots.

As Stéphanie Simard, Communications Manager for the Town of Hawkesbury, reminds us: 

And for those who think a small festival can’t change much, the community responds with its presence.
With music. With color. With its shared voices.

One stage, a thousand cultures 

For two days, Place des Pionniers becomes a crossroads — a space where cultures take center stage.
The program includes music, comedy, and above all, human connection.

Well-known voices like Roch Voisine, Manon Séguin, and Joemi Verdon will light up the stage on opening night. But don’t miss the equally talented artists on the second day at the “CFA Discovery Stage”: Dano, Segreti & Peace, Mehdi Bousaidan, Kristine St-Pierre, Queen of Rock…
Full programming at festivalmulticulturel.ca

For many newcomers, this festival is a first opportunity to be seen, heard, and welcomed — just as they are, with their language, their accent, and their story. That’s the real power of a stage: not to dazzle, but to connect.

We asked you the question.

And maybe the best answer lies… there. On a public square. In the heart of a town. On a summer night.

What speeches sometimes struggle to express, the Multicultural Festival shares in gestures, sounds, and shared emotions. And once again this year, the Town of Hawkesbury invites you to be part of it — Not just as a spectator, but as a voice among voices. A presence among presences.

Because sometimes, all it takes is two days… to turn a place into a community.

🎥 A video filmed in the streets of Hawkesbury gives you a taste of this celebration of diversity.
Watch it here: https://youtu.be/u0fg3L2Qohc