What is the One World Festival?
The Grey Bruce One World Festival is a free, unique daytime festival in Grey and Bruce that builds respectful relationships and supports inclusive communities throughout the region. It focuses on its primary participants, and emphasizes an educational and experiential component.
This occurs through the participation of local schools, agencies, health and arts organizations, cultural institutions, private citizens from diverse backgrounds, newcomers to Canada and the area, and social-justice and faith groups.
Over the past decade thousands of school children and youth have participated. Teachers, parents, presenters and grown children have told us what a difference the One World Festival made to them!
Since its inception, the festival has benefited from the strong support of the City of Owen Sound!
What Happens at the World Festival?
Presentations, learning & activities from around the world!
Children’s workshops, crafts & activities!
Indigenous teachings, history, culture!
Interactive performances music, dance, drama and puppetry!
Traditional games from around the world!
Speakers and storytelling!
Fun, Celebration, New Ideas and Thinking!
Goals & Outcomes
- To encourage participation by people of all backgrounds, ages and abilities.
- To present displays of different heritages and cultures, highlighting the diversity and creativity in our region
- To offer diversity-themed performances, presentations, conversations and activities featuring art, games, music, dance, drama, history, puppetry and poetry
“It is through the One World Festival that our students learn about their diverse heritage. It is by attending and performing at this event that our students begin to understand that Grey Bruce is home to many faiths and many cultures, and that we share a unique history.”
– Music Educator, Bluewater Board of Education
Who Organizes the One World Festival?
The Grey Bruce One World Festival is organized by the Grey Bruce One World Festival Committee (formerly the Inclusive Communities Committee of Grey and Bruce or ICC), which comprises of people from the community, and from local agencies and groups, who all share a strong commitment to creating a stronger community by building acceptance and inclusivity.
If you’d like to be part of the organizing committee, head to Join Us! for more information.
Our Values are a Part of Something Bigger
In 2020, the ICC and the Grey Bruce One World Festival became part of Welcoming Communities Grey Bruce (welcominggreybruce.ca). Welcoming Communities Grey Bruce (WCGB) works to create an inclusive and welcoming Grey Bruce, where differences are celebrated and no one is left behind, by:
- Providing local education, counselling, referrals and other support services, including language instruction, employment training, job-search programs, translation services and information programs on regional and Canadian culture and life, for immigrants, refugees and newcomers in need,
- Engaging community members in planning and activities to reduce social, racial, cultural and institutional barriers, and support a welcoming and inclusive Grey Bruce, and
- Collaborating with public, not-for-profit and private organizations and businesses to ensure that the needs of newcomers to Grey and Bruce are met and to build a welcoming and inclusive region for all residents.
2020 Welcoming Communities Grey Bruce (WCGB) board members are (back row from left) Nicholas Forrester, Waleed Aslam, Muna Shrestha, Manpreet Kaur Sangha, Donald Anderson, Colleen Purdon and David Morris, with staff members (front row from left) Olga Jura and Map Ip from WCGB’s Rural Pathways to Employment for Visible-Minority Newcomer Women program.