THE National Multicultural Festival will kick off its 25th anniversary celebrations on February 17-19 after missing two years because of COVID-19.

Headline acts for the festival include Mitch Tambo, Lisa Hunt, Parvyn, Justine Clarke, James Morrison and Jay Laga’aia.

For the first time, the festival will include 35 free, hands-on workshops to allow communities to share their cultural heritage through dance, art, and language. They will include how to wear an Indian sari or Korean hanbok, kung fu, calligraphy and bush-dancing classes, learning Tongan greetings and how to write in the Ancient Egyptian Coptic alphabet.

Another first for the anniversary year will be a dedicated cooking demonstration program at the City Walk stage across all three days, which will feature more than 15 community and professional chefs sharing stories and techniques behind cultural dishes from Taiwan to Assyria, Peru to Thailand.