Canberra's cultural groups want to see the ACT government offer up alternative events following the cancellation of the much-loved Multicultural Festival for a second year in a row.
The nation's capital will again be without its annual multicultural festive food and arts market, with authorities blaming the territory's COVID-19 lockdown for decimating its planning time.
ACT Multicultural Affairs Minister Tara Cheyne handed down the "difficult decision" on Thursday, adding the festival would return in early 2023.
Canberra Multicultural Community Forum chair Chin Wong said she had spoken to community members who had expressed disappointment and wanted more of an explanation.
"We were hoping that the government would either do a smaller one or change the way that it is," Ms Wong said.
"However, we also understand ... the minister [says] that the government has other priorities. And certainly we [would] like the community to understand too."
Instead, Ms Wong, and the various cultural community groups she represents, would like to see the ACT government plan smaller-sized events so groups can fundraise, and offer outreach and information to vaccine hesitant members.
"We're not here to criticise the government, but we're here to make sure that the government doesn't forget Canberra's multicultural communities," she said.
'The last of its kind'
For a number of Canberra small businesses, two years without the festival that gave them their start is a blow.
André Nogales, the owner of Gungahlin's South American bakery La Empanada, has been participating in the festival since 2015.
He was expecting a smaller spectacle early next year but was still grateful for the boost it could offer after nearly three months of lockdown.
"For us, as a business, [the festival] has a big impact financially and in getting exposure," Mr Nogales said.
"As a small business, we don't have a large budget to run marketing campaigns non-stop.
"At one point, financially, the Multicultural Festival was about 30 per cent of our sales for the year - so it plays a big, important part for us."
For the Ecuadorian expat, the festival also represents an opportunity to put Canberra's diversity on display for the country, and the world.
"[Canberra] is a very diverse city. But not all people from the outside can see that, and I think this festival definitely helps to highlight the diversity that Canberra was built upon," he said.
"There's not a lot of Latino community [here] so that's one little festival where we can showcase my background - and not just me being from Ecuador, but everybody from South America."
Mr Nogales said last year's event was probably the "last of its kind", believing it would take many years before it returned to the bustling Canberra attraction it was prior to the pandemic.
But he's hopeful in 2023, which would mark the 25th time the territory has held the event, it will return in all its former glory.
"We're hoping definitely in the following year, there is a multicultural festival to the level that it was before," he said.
"We have to stay positive because I think if we focus too much on the negative then it's just depressing for everybody."
