Mondial des Cultures

The Mondial des Cultures (formerly called the Festival Mondial de Folklore (World Folklore Festival) is a folk dance festival which is held every summer in early July at the Woodyatt Park, in Drummondville, a city located in the Centre-du-Québec region. The event was founded in 1982, after members of the folk ensemble Mackinaw had attended a similar festival in Dijon, France. The festival is in its 28th edition, and ran from July 9–19, 2009.

During the eleven days of celebration, dozens of renowned artists and folk ensembles from around the world participate in this event which has attracted in recent years an average of over 300,000 visits per year. The annual budget is 2.2 million Canadian dollars and the economic benefits are estimated at 16.7 million Canadian dollars, according to a study conducted by the survey firm CROP in 2007. Such statistics make the Mondial des Cultures one of the four largest folk festivals in the world. It is also one of the figureheads of the Canadian Section of the CIOFF (International Organization of Folklore Festival and Traditional Arts), an organization in formal consultative relations with UNESCO.

The Mondial des Cultures aims to hold a high quality festival for spectators that are eager to discover cultures of the world while respecting its mission to:

"Develop and hold an international cultural event which displays the facets of various traditions of the world in a festival for the whole family where a brotherhood and universal spirit of peace prevails."

The very first edition of the Mondial des Cultures was founded in July 1982 thanks to the support of the Canadian Council of Folk Art (Conseil Canadien des arts populaires) and the Carrefour socio-culturel of Drummondville. The spontaneous support of the local population made the success of the event instantaneous and the festival rapidly became a reference in the Québec Folklore, in North America and around the world.

Twenty-seven years later, some 90 countries have been represented through dance and music performed by more than 430 different artistic groups. In 1998, a shift began with the change of name, to upgrade the image of the event and also to expand the programming, and focus more and more on the younger public and families. Immersed in an ocean of summer festivals and attractions of all kinds, the Mondial des Cultures has managed to distinguish itself by its content and its product. Member of RÉMI (Regroupement des événements majeurs internationaux du Québec) since 1999, the organization plays a key role in the biggest events in Québec.

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