Asian festival set for April 29

By Pam Wright Local Journalism Initiative pamwrightlji@gmail.com

Spring has sprung and with it comes the return of the Chatham-Kent Asian Cultural Association’s Spring Music & Food Festival on April 29.

Open to everyone, the event will be held at the Chatham W.I.S.H. Centre beginning at 5:30 p.m.

According to organizer Maru Lakshmanan, spring is special to the Indian community and is marked around the world with names such as Baisaki, Puthand, Vishu, Pohela and Pana Sankaranthi.

The festival signals a new beginning, Lakshmanan said, getting it back on track after it being on hold due of the pandemic.

“Everyone knows in the past two years; we couldn’t do anything,” he said. “The CK association would like to do something to break that and we want to celebrate spring events.”

Founded in 1999, the association now has around 600 members who hail from international Asian communities. Most community mem- zens.

“The pandemic really did make things worse for a lot of people. We saw more need from more people,” she said.