Multicultural show draws incredible crowd
ORGANISERS of the Multicultural Night Under the Stars described the 3500-person turnout at the Graham Bricknell Memorial Music Shell on Saturday as incredible.
The night started on a bright note after a record 40 countries were represented in the flag ceremony.
Troy Bennell performed the Welcome to Country and the Australian national anthem was performed by Courtney Gledhill.
The crowd enjoyed performances from Bunbury's multicultural groups and dined on food from different parts of the world.
Event coordinator Shamara Williams was pleased the event was a success and paid tribute to the hard work of the Bunbury Multicultural Group.
"All evening I had people come up to me to say that they hadn't known there were so many different cultural groups in Greater Bunbury," she said.
"The demonstration of the diversity in this community, and opportunities being offered to embrace multiculturalism and build harmony, is what the Bunbury Multicultural Group endeavours to accomplish with such events.
"The fact that well over 3000 people gathered on Saturday night to enjoy this cross-cultural experience shows the local community is open to embracing cultural traditions from other countries."
Master of ceremonies Shreya Pal, 23, the daughter of Bunbury Multicultural Group chairwoman Saswati Pal, praised the city's friendly, down-to-earth attitude.
"Multiculturalism is hard to put in a nutshell but I would say it is an acceptance of diversity and an appreciation of people from different walks of life," she said.
"All evening I had people come up to me to say that they hadn't known there were so many different cultural groups in greater Bunbury" - Shamara Williams
