fiestamalaysia.com.au
Fiesta Malaysia Melbourne is an annual cultural event which will be held over three days in March - from Friday the 23rd to the Sunday the 25th.
The festival, which is family friendly is separated into three main events;
Opening Ceremony of Fiesta Malaysia on Friday 23rd of March.
Penang Festival on Saturday 24th of March.
Grand Finale of Fiesta Malaysia on Sunday 25th of March.
The festival itself will occupy three main venues;
Argyle Square, Lygon Street.
Little Italy on Lygon Street.
Piazza Italia in Argyle Square on Lygon Street.
Across these three public spaces you will find a huge range of cultural events and activities. Some of the highlights include the Penang food stalls, where you can indulge in hawker style foods such as Tari Burger, Satay and Penang Laksa. There will also be a Malaysian culinary workshop, where you can learn to make the popular Malaysian dish
Char kway teow, as well as cooking demonstrations of various
Laksa dishes and
Roti canai, and
Teh tarik, a popular drink which has a special pouring method.
fiestamalaysia.com.au
Besides food, other cultural events include a Stand Up Comedy Performance and Workshop with
Phoon Chi Ho,
Douglas Lim and
Kuah Jenhan.
Also worth noting is the Traditional Costume Photo Booth, where participants are encouraged to try on traditional Malaysian cultural outfits and have their picture taken. There will be two exhibitions on offer; one will focus on the history or Malaysia, while the other will explore Malay, Chinese and Indian wedding cultures. Plus there will be a Games Booth, where those with a competitive streak can have a go at Chinese checkers, mah-jong, teng-teng, sepak takraw and batu seremban.
There will be a range of cultural performances throughout the three day festival, from live music performances to traditional dance demonstrations and even karate demonstrations.
For the full itinerary please see the
Fiesta Malaysia Melbourne website.
For the very latest on this event, please see the
Fiesta Malaysia Melbourne Facebook profile.
WeekendNotes recently caught up with the talented Fiesta Malaysia team - check out our interview below.
Lygon Street is home to the annual Fiesta Malaysia event, a three day festival which brings the unique Malaysian melting pot of arts, culture, religion and history to the streets of multicultural Melbourne. CEO of Fiesta Malaysia, Dayang Norfarehan, regards the event as a rare opportunity for Australian Malaysians and international students to connect with their homeland and awaken "that Malaysian root which continues to exist, no matter how long a Malaysian has been overseas'.
This major cultural event is organised by MCulture division of the Malaysian Students' Council of Australia, Victoria (MASCA Victoria), a not for profit organisation, which represents 8600 Malaysian students in Victoria and 22,000 Malaysian students in Australia.
fiestamalaysia.com.au
In addition to promoting Malaysian tourism and culture in Australia, MASCA Victoria also place a special focus on inspiring and developing leadership within the international student community through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Agenda (ASEAN). Fiesta Malaysia is also proudly supported by the Australia-Malaysia Institute, the City of Melbourne, Tourism Malaysia, Penang State Tourism and Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
Fiesta Malaysia celebrates the finer details of Malaysian culture and for Ms. Dayang "is a stage", where she and the dedicated Fiesta Malaysia team can express their "love and passion for all the beautiful things related to Malaysia".
fiestamalaysia.com.au
Visitors to the event can enjoy the colourful multicultural Malaysian cuisine which includes Malay cuisine, Malaysian Indian cuisine, Malaysian Chinese cuisine, Peranakan cuisine and Sarawak Indigenous cuisine. Cultural entertainment includes traditional and modern Malay live music performances, traditional and modern dance performances and martial arts demonstrations by Australian Malaysian artists and special guest Malaysian artists.
In addition to these festival staples, Fiesta Malaysia also features various exhibitions which focus on the history of Malaysia, as well as interactive traditional costume booths, cultural houses and comedy workshops. Ms. Dayang states that she, along with the team behind Fiesta Malaysia wants the Melbourne public to participate and become involved in Malaysian culture and customs and "experience it first hand, rather than just observe it."
fiestamalaysia.com.au
However whilst Fiesta Malaysia is at its core a celebration of Malaysian culture in the city of Melbourne, CEO of MCulture and Chairperson of MASCA Victoria, Ashley Toh, believes the event also offers the Melbourne Malaysian student community numerous opportunities to "discover their strength and leadership potential".
For both Ms. Dayang and Ms. Toh, who are Malaysian nationals, Fiesta Malaysia has offered them both the rare opportunity to reconnect and celebrate their homeland, whilst being far from home. Their experiences as international students in Melbourne have been positive and they both view the multicultural Melbourne community as not so different to the Malaysian community; Ms. Toh noted that as she had spent most of her life in Malaysia, she was "equipped to survive in and even enjoy the culturally-diversified community in Australia".
fiestamalaysia.com.au
In effect, Fiesta Malaysia is an event for all Melburnians to enjoy and embrace, as by celebrating the diverse multiethnic and multicultural community of Malaysia, Ms. Dayang, Ms. Toh and the team behind the event are equally celebrating the multicultural Melbourne community. At its heart, Fiesta Malaysia is about celebrating one's cultural identity, and whether Malaysian or Melburnian, you are sure to find a sense of community and friendship at Fiesta Malaysia.
