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Mosaic is back and apparently bigger than ever.
People began to pour into the REAL District on Saturday afternoon to catch the final day of Mosaic just as the pavilions began to open at 2 p.m.
Festival chair Nish Prasad said Mosaic has had nothing short of a triumphant return.
“It’s been great. It has been beyond what we had expected,” Prasad said.
This year’s Mosaic broke the previous record for passport sales, according to Prasad.
“At the (Regina Multicultural Council) office, representatives from pavilions (were) continuously coming to get passports (because) they were running out of passports at their pavilions,” Prasad said.
Prasad said a few pavilions weren’t sure what attendance would look like, but people came out in huge numbers.
“There’s a new energy and enthusiasm among the volunteers and I see that people in general are just so excited,” Prasad said.
“You look at the streets in Regina and you can just see the traffic (of people going to pavilions). People are happy, people are joyful and I can just see smiles on people’s faces.”
Volunteers like Brian Sklar were ecstatic to be back after a three-year hiatus. Sklar was a technical volunteer with the Spirit of China Pavilion.
“I’ve been doing this for several years and then of course COVID got in the way and (now) we’re back again,” Sklar said. “It’s wonderful, it’s huge (and) it’s more successful than it’s ever been.”
Sklar appreciated being involved with live performances in front of crowds again.
“As a professional musician, I’ve made music all my life,” Sklar said. “(During) those two and a half years of not being able to go out and play, we had to create gigs.
“We had to go and play on the lawn in front of seniors’ homes and places like that where we didn’t have direct contact with people because they were hurt worse with the pandemic than many of us were. It’s just so nice now to be able to gather in one room with a whole bunch of people.”
Prasad, who has been involved with Mosaic for more than 15 years, said he couldn’t have been more satisfied with how things turned out.
“This is a great family event to just pass on our cultures to the next generation but at the same time to learn about other cultures,” Prasad said.
