Lord mayoral hopeful Jennifer Yang wants to close Melbourne CBD for global multicultural festival in 2019
MELBOURNE is the festival capital of Australia and now another event is being proposed, which would see the CBD closed to traffic for a multicultural street party.
VIC News
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MELBOURNE’S CBD would be closed to traffic under a plan to hold a $12 million world ethnic festival.
If elected, lord mayoral candidate Jennifer Yang has pledged to stage the event to showcase the city’s “world famous diversity and inclusion”.
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The inaugural Melbourne International Multicultural Festival would be held in October 2019 and run from midday to midnight on a Saturday.
Key roads like Swanston, Elizabeth, William and Russell streets would be transformed to showcase world regions including Asia Pacific, Africa, Middle East, the Americas, Europe and indigenous Australia.
Cars would be kept out of the city between William and Exhibition streets and the City of Melbourne would contribute $5 million of the estimated $12.3 million cost.
Ms Yang said the successful White Night festival inspired her idea, which would join Melbourne's international film and comedy festivals on the major events calendar.
“Melbourne is home to one of the world’s most vibrant and multicultural communities,” she said.
“This celebration of our diversity will make us more prosperous as a city.”
Ms Yang said she would work with key multicultural groups, traders and residents to bring the festival to life.
She has support from multicultural community figures such as Marion Lau, Mike Zafiropoulos and Ahmed Faid.
Mr Zafiropoulos said: “This festival is something that every Melburnian will embrace.”
Ms Lau said it would be an opportunity to bring different communities together.
“We need to gather as a city more often and learn about each other’s culture,” she said.
About four-in-10 Melburnians are migrants, with the city’s population set to hit the five million mark soon amid high immigration.
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