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23| W aterloo C hronicle | T hursday,June 14,2018 w aterloochronicle.ca From the latest information on local politics, to minor sports scores, to what's going on down the street, visit www.waterloochronicle.ca CONNECTED TO YOUR COMMUNITY ARTS FOCUS Visit waterloochronicle.ca for more coverage One of the exciting as- pects of living in a multi- cultural community is be- ing exposed to new music, rhythms, instruments and songs. On Saturday, June 16, Kitchener City Hall's Carl Zehr Square will be filled with such music: Turkish, Mexican, bluegrass and alt-folk at the 13th annual "Our World Festival of Mu- sic" a free event happening in conjunction with the King StrEatery food truck festival. "I really have to give credit to Brian Scott, (for- mer) City of Kitchener events," said organizer Lawrence McNaught, pro- gram director of the Regis- try Theatre who was ap- proached by Scott more than a decade ago. "He noticed I was put- ting on world music at the Registry," he said. "They had a program celebrating diversity under the Tapes- try banner." It seemed logical to pull these two together using McNaught's connections and interest in world mu- sic and bringing it under the umbrella of the city's events program. Last year the musical event was held in conjunc- tion with the Summer Lights Festival which this year takes place tonight from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. The city approached McNaught and suggested a partnership with Big Sis- ters Big Brothers of Water- loo Region, which had been invited by the city to participate in the King StrEatery event. "I'm always looking for opportunities to partner with community groups," said McNaught, who notes the festival places an em- phasis on presenting per- formers who live in Water- loo Region or close by. McNaught is thrilled to have booked world music Juno Award winning art- ist, QuiQue Escamilla who came to Toronto from the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico in 2007. He will per- form at 10 p.m. At 8:45 p.m. Waterloo Flamenco guitarist, Ju- neyt, performs. The musi- cian arrived in Waterloo Region from Turkey in 1999 and has become a pop- ular local fixture on the world music scene. In 2017 Juneyt was recognized with a Toronto Indepen- dent Music Award. Other acts include the bluegrass band Barn Katz and "Safe As Houses a lo- cal alt-folk group that sings in five part harmony and has been making a name for itself across Can- ada. "This is the first year Big Brothers Big Sisters were invited, it's a new type of fundraiser for us," said the charity's resource development manager, Mallory Boyer. Originally Boyer thought their organiza- tion would simply be run- ning a family program in the afternoon and they had booked performers from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. in- cluding Tea for Two, Glenn Soulis & Friends and Jessie T. When they were ap- proached by McNaught, their little event suddenly grew. "We've never done any- thing on this scale before," said Boyer. "We sat down with Lawrence, he is a re- ally great collaborative person." It made sense to sched- ule back-to-back concerts, starting at 3:30 and wrap- ping up by 11 p.m. The thinking was, they wouldn't lose audiences with non-stop entertain- ment. "We're looking forward to this," said Boyer, who notes they have never held a concert quite this large before. Big Brothers Big Sis- ters' portion of the festival will feature all manner of activities for kids: face painting, games, drum- ming circle and hair braid- ing as well as the music. The food trucks pay a fee to participate in the event, money that is donat- ed to Big Brothers Big Sis- ters. As well, the organiza- tion will hold a Text to Do- nate, where donors can text a specific number on their smartphones and a $5 donation will be added to their phone bill. The provider then sends the money to Big Brothers Big Sisters. "This is a great fund- raiser and it spreads awareness," she said. "We're really excited." Our World Festival of Music explores the multicultural music in our own backyard Fundraiser, food truck and music festival fills day with free entertainment VALERIE HILL From left: Bluegrass band Barn Katz; World music Juno Award winning artist, QuiQue Escamilla; Safe As Houses is a local alt-folk group that sings in five-part harmony; Waterloo Flamenco guitarist, Juneyt Photos courtesy of One World Festival