Sponsor Togather Chinatown Arts Festival
What is Togather Chinatown Arts Festival?
The Togather Chinatown Arts Festival is a multicultural, family-friendly, art, food, and community festival that takes place over Lunar New Year on February 1 & 2, 2025 at the Edmonton Chinatown Multi-Cultural Centre! Watch a video of our 2024 event.
The name “Togather” is inspired by the Chinese slogan 不见不散, meaning “Don’t leave until we meet”. We aim to create a space where diverse groups can come together in Chinatown to celebrate the Lunar New Year through a shared love of art, food, and community. The festival features a community market made up of local artists, community organizations, and micro-businesses who are making a splash in the local arts scene. We encourage community members to creatively share their background and histories, and to celebrate Edmonton’s vibrant and diverse arts and culture scene.
Togather by the Numbers:
Togather was launched in February 2024, and we saw 2100+ guests for our very first event! We showcased:
35+ local artists, microbusinesses, and performers. Our performances included lion dance, drumming, magic shows, face painting, and other children's activities.
95% of our vendors identified as belonging to a equity-seeking group
45% identified as being emerging artists
12 tables were subsidized (free to the artist)
23% were based out of Chinatown/Boyle/McCauley
Togather was also the only free public indoor festival celebrating Lunar New Year in Chinatown in 2024. So we are excited to return in 2025, and do even better!
What’s new for 2025?
We are expanding our festival to include more local artists and performances!
We are expanding to create a “Chinatown Food Court” - YUM!
We are partnering with the Chinese Library on the 2nd level to host free workshops for all ages throughout the weekend!
We are working with the Mah Society to host additional activities in their building (1 block away) for even more games/activities during the festival hours!
Why Your Support is Important
Togather is free to the public. We pay all of our performers fair industry rates. And to eliminate barriers to access for our artists, we keep our market table fees as low as possible. So in order to sustain this exciting and accessible public event, we rely on grants and funding to operate.
The funding we receive will help us cover: venue cost, equipment rental such as tables/chairs, cultural performances/workshops, food, marketing, printing, and other administrative fees. Community support also allows us to keep our vendor fees low, and sometimes free. We empathize with the rising costs of living and how that can be a barrier to artists and small businesses in the area to participate. We also want to ensure the event remains accessible to the public, regardless of background or socioeconomic status, by keeping it free of charge.
Your financial support and dedication to the community allows us to keep our community events inclusive and vibrant, fostering a Chinatown that is tolerant, welcoming, and safe for all!
