A day of celebration will cap off with a concert in the park.
The first-ever Khalsa Day celebration is being held in Timmins on June 25. After the activities wrap up downtown, renowned Bhangra performer Jazzy B is putting on a concert at the Mattagami Historical Conservation Area.
Today, the Punjabi Cultural Music Festival received $60,000 from the Timmins Economic Development Corporation (TEDC) municipal accommodation tax subcommittee for the concert.
Khalsa Day is a celebration of the Sikh culture and organizer Kanwaljit Kaur Bains is expecting about 1,000 people to attend the inaugural event in Timmins.
There will be a parade downtown, leaving the Sikh Temple at 11 a.m. After there will be traditional ceremonies, free vegetarian food, a turban-tying experience, Sikh martial arts and information displays.
“On the Khalsa Day parade it is for the community. It’s not just for the Sikhs, it’s for everybody to come and join,” said Bains, explaining there will be lots of bright colours, predominantly yellow and blue.
The Jazzy B concert came about after plans for Khalsa Day were put in place.
“Jazzy B’s family owns one of the properties here in Timmins, I’m very proud to say that. The reason for me to call him was because he’s from a younger generation, a little bit younger than my age but a little bit older than the international students — so he’s in between. And kids do like him a lot, he is a famous performer,” Bains said.
“He volunteered to come for the Khalsa Day parade so that we can bring more tourism to Timmins. That’s the whole purpose of it, bring more attraction to it and let people know that Timmins does exist and it’s a beautiful city.”
Since he was going to be in town, Bains said she they decided to have the concert for people to enjoy a performance from him as well.
The celebration is a wonderful opportunity for the city, said TEDC board chair Audrey Penner.
“It’s wonderful the way that the temple has been built and the buy-in that we’ve had into the cultural event. I think this is a fabulous opportunity for Timmins to celebrate all that it is. It’s always been quite welcoming to international students and I know our students from Northern College have been welcomed with open arms here,” she said.
At Northern College, she said there are about 500 international students right now. In the fall there will be closer to 900 and by January Penner said the school will have about 1,200 international students. She noted the number is always changing as people graduate.
A good segment of the international students is from India. The school is also recruiting from Sub-Saharan Africa, South America and the Philippines.
