Thousands flock to Gold Coast Multicultural Festival in Broadwater Parklands

Thousands have flocked to the Gold Coast Multicultural Festival — now its organisers want to see the event return to its former glory.

ORGANISERS of the Gold Coast Multicultural Festival want to see the one-day event return to its week-long glory after this year’s success.

The event, now in its 12th year, originally ran a full week’s program of events in 2014 before cutting back to a single day.

Festival President Ben Brauer said his team had surveyed the more than 10,000 festivalgoers as they made their way through Broadwater Parklands today.

Performers from Japanese Dancing Mai posed for social media snaps before their turn on stage. Photo: Teiko Fujita

“Every year the surveys come back with around 90 per cent approval of the event being grown, they want a full week rather than just the one day,” he said.

“This is the one whole city multicultural event. The focus seems to be mostly on events that generate bed nights, which is understandable for a tourist city, but what about the cultural communities?”

Multicultural communities make up a large percentage of the Gold Coast’s population, with 40 per cent of residents either having been born or directly descended from someone overseas.

Over 14 per cent of Gold Coaster’s speak a language other than English at home.

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Performers from more than two dozen countries including Africa, Armenia, the Philippines and Japan were featured across three stages.

Dancer Teiko Fujita, from Japanese Dancing Mai, said she had been attending the event for four years now.

Thousands turned out to watch several performances throughout the day. Photo: Teiko Fujita

“I think it’s important to celebrate everyone on the Gold Coast’s culture, seeing it is something you can’t do normally,” she said.

“It’s a good chance to show Japanese culture to people who don’t know anything about it. I love dancing in front of a lot of people, I can’t usually do that. It’s a good experience for the kids as well.”