AROUND THE WORLD IN FOUR DAYS
Sal Bommarito

Brantford Expositor
Thursday, July 2, 2009

INTERNATIONAL VILLAGES FESTIVAL: This year’s event features two
new cultures

Brantford International Villages Festival vice-president Frank Wdowczyk
proudly displays a passport from the inaugural event 36 years ago.

The red pamphlet is about half the size of this year’s white glossy
version and features a drawing of an elderly Alexander Graham Bell
on its cover next to the words, "International Villages Festival,
Brant Bell Centennial, 1874-1974."

It’s symbolic that Wdowczyk, who also is chairman of the Polish
Polonaise Village, has kept the pamphlet in its original condition
all these years.

Wdowczyk and president Pat Eyzenga, both 71, have been involved in
one capacity or another since the festival’s inception as part of
celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the invention of the
telephone.

They have become synonymous, if somewhat reluctantly, with the
cultural celebration.

"We’re going to hit 21 villages again before we retire," jokes Eyzenga,
who has seen interest in the festival peak in the early 1980s, wane
to an all-time low of five villages in 2004 and then recover to its
present-day level of 14.

"We’re always very upbeat," adds Wdowczyk.

Both have seen a number of changes since 1974.

Take, for instance, the cost of the passport: $1 then, compared with
$7 during the last two years.

"We didn’t put the price up because it’s a family oriented event and
we want people to enjoy themselves," Eyzenga says of the July 8-11
festivities, which take place at various locations throughout the city.

The inaugural event featured eight villages and stretched over 17 days.

Continued After Advertisement Below Advertisement Representatives of
the Armenian, Dutch, German, Hungarian, Italian, Jewish, Ukrainian
and Polish communities banded together to make the 1974 gathering
a reality.

Today, Italian, German, Ukrainian and Polish, now divided into
Polonaise and Warszawa, villages are still going strong.

Apart from the four villages that are festival stalwarts, this month’s
event will feature the communities of Britain, Scotland, Latin America,
Philippines, New York and Muslim, as well as two new kids on the block,
India and Guyana, reflecting the city’s changing cultural mosaic.

During the Bell centennial celebrations, local multicultural
communities saw an opportunity to showcase their ethnic diversity
and revel in their newfound Canadian identities.

To this day, those ideals remain central to the festival’s mission
statement, according to Wdowczyk.

"This is an important vehicle to show other Canadians that we’re not
that diff erent from one another," says Wdowczyk, who emigrated from
Poland with his parents and eight brothers and sisters at the age
of 13.

"We all chose to come to this great country and we appreciate it
very much. We do more to fight racism with this event than a lot of
high-priced agencies."

Certainly, food, fun and entertainment aimed at young and old alike
are the main staples of the festival, which provides bus shuttle
service between villages to discourage people from drinking and
driving. Colourful costumes, folk dancing, and live bands were as
popular with festival- goers then as they are now.

Those who attend this year’s event are guaranteed the best of what
the various cultures have to offer because of an ongoing friendly
rivalry that exists between villages, Wdowczyk says.

"Every village is trying to put its best foot forward," he says with
a smile.

Eyzenga, who recalls paying for professional dancers to come over
from Holland several years ago as part of the festivities, quickly
adds that the Best Village competition was dropped a few years ago
because of the diffi culties it presented for judges.

"Each culture is diff erent. You can’t judge who the best one is,"
she says.

The festival continues to hold its annual ambassador pageant, which
is an immense source of pride for the various villages. It was won
this year by Hungarian Village ambassador Nicole Biro.

Sampling culinary delights and libation proff ered at various villages
is certainly mandatory. However, there also is an educational element
that should not be overlooked, says Wdowczyk.

For example, visitors to Nayong Pilipino, which means Philippine
Village, will learn that the country’s complex history reflects
the blending of Hispanic, American, Malayo-Polynesian, Chinese and
Japanese cultures.

Meanwhile, those gracing the German Village will hear the club predates
the festival by 21 years and its members constructed the Sonnenhof Hall
on Henry Street, which features southern German architecture, in 1962.

Visitors to any of the villages are sure to reap the rewards of the
hard work of volunteers that starts in September and goes non-stop
until the final oompahpah sounds.

Planning this year’s event has not been without its challenges,
according to both board members.

Funding shortfalls and lack of volunteer interest have made this year
difficult, although the festival did receive a much-needed windfall
grant of $15,000 from Canadian Heritage, with the help of Brant MP
Phil McColeman.

Up to 2002, the festival was sponsored and run by Immigration and
Settlement Services. Since 2003, volunteers have kept the festival
going.

"When we went 100% volunteer we had to borrow $500 from Pat (Eyzenga)
for office supplies," says Wdowczyk.

The mood at that first meeting was upbeat despite the challenges that
lay ahead, he adds.

"We said, ‘We can’t give it up. We’ve worked too hard.’" Since then,
it’s been a struggle, they both admit.

Eyzenga, who once ran the Dutch Village for many years, says
it’s increasingly difficult to attract new blood, especially on
a shoe-string budget "It’s very difficult to put up a village,"
she says. "I had to give (the Dutch Village) up. The community was
getting smaller and I was finding it tough."

She remembers how, at its height in 1982, the festival featured 21
villages and spanned two weeks.

"I used to take my vacation (during the festival)," she says.

Soon, though, the number of villages was shrinking and so was
attendance.

Today, to keep overhead costs low, the board of directors, which
consists of Wdowczyk and Eyzenga, secretary Diane Martyniuk and
treasurer Norm Philpott, meet at Eyzenga’s apartment. Photocopying
is done at the Polish Hall on Pearl Street.

Despite the ups and downs, both board members remain optimistic about
the future.

They cite the addition of two new villages this year -India and Guyana
-as well as the recent addition of the Muslim Village, as reasons to
remain hopeful about the event’s prospects.

"We’ve made some good friends in the India and Muslim villages,"
she says.

Amazingly, Eyzenga says three more villages, which missed the cutoff
for this year’s event, have been confirmed for next year’s festival,
although she wouldn’t divulge their identities.

The influx of new groups is good news because it means more volunteers,
especially younger ones with the technological knowledge necessary
to keep the festival moving forward, says Wdowczyk.

"I’m not worried about the future. We have new villages and they have
young people who are very skilful," he says.

For information on passport sales, village locations and times,
bus service and more, visit brantfordvillages.ca.