The Toronto Ukrainian Festival at Harbourfront Centre

Jurij Klufas, Chair of  the Toronto Ukrainian Festival, formerly the Bloor West Village Ukrainian Festival, announced that the 11^th Annual Toronto Ukrainian Festival will be presented at Harbourfront Centre during the Labour Day Weekend – from Friday, August 31 until Monday, September 3, 2007. 

The Festival promotes and fosters Ukrainian culture and traditions as integral elements of Canada’s multicultural mosaic.  This year’s four day program will unite visitors in a celebration of Ukrainian culture. Guests will experience the old and new world traditions of a Ukrainian wedding celebration, which will feature the union of a wedding couple in a traditional ceremony on the Concert Stage. The Ukrainian wedding is a time of great joy and fun-filled parties, interwoven with ancient symbolic rituals.

The Festival will also feature performances of folk dance groups and contemporary Ukrainian rock bands. Modern and vintage Ukrainian films will immerse participants in the challenges faced by Ukrainian йmigrйs in the new world, and will provide Canadians with an important historical perspective of Ukraine’s place in history. 

At its annual meeting on March 21, 2007, the Board of Directors officially adopted a new name for the Festival – The Toronto Ukrainian Festival. In addition, the Board increased its membership by adding four new members, all young professionals with several years of hands-on experience in key organizational roles at the festival. They are Hanya Kohut, Anna Heychuk, Maksym Stolyarevsky and Danylo Hrycyna. Halia Hrycyna, Festival Administrator & Volunteer Coordinator, became an ex-officio member of the Board.

Olya Grod and Raya Shadursky have stepped down from the Board after ten years of service.  Reflecting on her involvement since the inception of the Festival, outgoing board member Olya Grod remarked, “This has been an incredible journey, thanks to the support of so many people. I have no doubt that the new members of the Board will continue the evolution of the Toronto Ukrainian Festival and it will enjoy the same level of success that it has had over the past ten years.”

The Festival was inaugurated in 1997 in response to a call by the City of Toronto for a revival of the 1991 Twinning Agreement between Toronto and Ukraine’s Capital City, Kyiv. The first organizers of the Festival were the Ukrainian Canadian Congress - Toronto Branch and Kontakt Television.

For more information and to get updates on the exciting festival program, please visit www.ukrainianfestival.com and www.harbourfrontcentre.com.