HAPPENING Multicultural Festival is the first and only Toronto festival created by community artists, giving center-stage to the talent and skills of immigrant, newcomer, and refugee artists. HAPPENING gave space to embrace the cultural richness of our city, while creating professional development opportunities for artists. It offered a platform for organizations to connect, and form meaningful collaborations.
*HAPPENING Multicultural Festival is produced by MUSE Arts.
HAPPENING Multicultural 2025
Call for Vendors
Happening Community Activation events take place from May 15th – May 24th, and our #HAPPENING Festival May 29th to May 31, 2025. All events are taking place at MUSE Arts Creative Lab (1369B St Clair Ave West, Earlscourt Park – St Clair Ave West and Caledonia Road entrance).
VENDORS ARE INVITED TO JOIN US:
Call for Volunteers
Big dreams need big teams to make them happen. We would love to have you involved in this year’s edition of HAPPENING Multicultural Festival and many other upcoming events.
We are grateful to each one of you, who help us accomplish many goals and dreams. We look forward to continuing to build community together.
VOLUNTEERS ARE INVITED TO JOIN US:
Call for Visual Artists
Raffle
Call for Newcomer & Refugee Artists!
We have something BIG just for you!
Join us during HAPPENING Multicultural Festival 2025 and get a chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip to our 2026 Community Arts Residency in Colombia!
Knowledge Sharing
Los pájaros me cuentan historias: Taller Creativo
Three Venezuelan Madrigals: Poetry and Creative Writing
Dream Keeper
Felt Workshop
Patterns of Possibility: Blooming Ephemeral Mandalas
Cartografía
de Corazón
Fleeting Forms: A Sand Art Workshop on Dreams & Change
Street Dance &
Self-Expression
Artist Meet-up &
Visual Arts Exhibit Opening
Launch into HAPPENING Multicultural Festival 2025 with our inaugural event: an inspiring Artist Meet-Up at the iconic Rivoli Restaurant.
In a time when the world faces deep divisions and uncertainty, we gather to celebrate the power of art, dreams, and community. This event is a space to connect, share ideas, and build relationships that spark transformation through creativity and collaboration.
Networking Event
This is a space for all newcomer, immigrant, refugee, and emerging artists to learn about existing services and opportunities from Toronto organizations, as well as a great chance to network and connect with other artists.
Creative Facilitation & Community Care Training
Join us for a full-day immersive training (9 AM – 5 PM) designed to equip participants with the skills to facilitate inclusive, creative, and empowering community spaces. Join us in this exciting opportunity to develop your skills, connect with fellow artists, and contribute to the vibrant cultural tapestry of Toronto.
Calendar
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Latest Past Events
Community Celebration
Join us for the grand finale of our festival at the park—a celebration of music and community! Experience the harmonious melodies of choirs, the electrifying beats of DJs, and the […]
The Colors of the Earth Workshop: Painting with Natural Dyes
Facebook Register Painting workshop with the colors of the earth, a dynamic learning through experimentation and the awakening of the senses. We invite you to explore with us together in […]
Dance and Performance Night
Facebook Eventbrite Step into the rhythm of the night as we continue our celebration of creativity and collaboration with a mesmerizing dance and performance night! Dance and movement are the […]
Happening Through The Years
2024 - HAPPENING MULTI-ARTS FESTIVAL
HAPPENING Multicultural Festival is the first and only Toronto festival created by community artists, giving center-stage to the talent and skills of immigrant, newcomer, and refugee artists. HAPPENING gave space to embrace the cultural richness of our city, while creating professional development opportunities for artists. It offered a platform for organizations to connect, and form meaningful collaborations. The 2022 year’s edition included one month of programming, 15 events for the community and around 150 artists involved in all of them.
Community Celebration
Dance and Performance Night
Networking Event for Artist and Organizations
Artist Meetup
Puppets Workshop
Zine-Making Workshop
2023 - HAPPENING MULTICULTURAL FESTIVAL
HAPPENING Multicultural Festival is the first and only Toronto festival created by community artists, giving center-stage to the talent and skills of immigrant, newcomer, and refugee artists. HAPPENING gave space to embrace the cultural richness of our city, while creating professional development opportunities for artists. It offered a platform for organizations to connect, and form meaningful collaborations.
2022 - HAPPENING MULTICULTURAL LIVE: PUBLIC ART AND COLLECTIVE VOICE
HAPPENING Multicultural Festival is the first and only Toronto festival created by community artists, giving center-stage to the talent and skills of immigrant, newcomer, and refugee artists. HAPPENING gave space to embrace the cultural richness of our city, while creating professional development opportunities for artists. It offered a platform for organizations to connect, and form meaningful collaborations. The 2022 year’s edition included one month of programming, 15 events for the community and around 150 artists involved in all of them.
2021 - HAPPENING MULTICULTURAL LIVE: PUBLIC ART AND COLLECTIVE VOICE
With 2020’s previous experience, we felt comfortable enough to host another online festival. This gave us the opportunity to broaden our guest and speaker list!
HAPPENING 2021 festival took place during the entire month of May and brought together over 80 artists and performers belonging to diverse communities.
2020 - Happening Multicultural: Power of Community
2020 was a year of profound uncertainty. Like the rest of the world, our floor was shaken by the lockdown 2 months away from what we had originally planned to be our week-long festival.
In response to the realities of those unprecedented times, and in an effort to continue staying connected, working together, and supporting our communities, 2020’s Happening Multicultural Festival adapted to an online format.
With a combination of community activations and online events, Happening lasted a whole month. Our main community activation was based around “Doves of Peace”, a project where we encouraged the community to portray what “peace” meant for them in doves made out of canvas. This way we were able to spread messages of peace throughout our audiences.
We also hosted diverse online spaces where we discussed themes such as the price of freedom of expression, music education within communities, art and mental health. As always, we sought to bring exciting programming for everyone.
2019 - Happening Community and Identity Multicultural Festival
In 2019 we took a huge leap and, as our community was growing, we decided to go for a 4-day festival! From May 29th to June 1st, we had the participation of more than 140 artists in different art branches such as visual arts, community arts, poetry, dance, music and storytelling.
That year we also incorporated a space for organizations and artists to network. As you can see, doors kept opening year after year, and Happening was gaining momentum in Toronto’s artistic scene.
Those 4 days of festival were made possible with the sponsorship from Audiovisuals, Independent Curator, 918 Bathurst, Sbabe She’s.
2018 - Happening: Multicultural Evening in Support of Community Arts & Cultural Exchange in Latin America and the Caribbean
In 2018, we were hosted by 918 Bathurst. It was a successful year as the artists were already familiarized with our event and were anticipating their participation in it. We had wonderful artists, many of whom were refugees and newcomers to Canada. We opened the space for poetry, music, performance, art exhibition and a silent auction.
2017 - Happening: A Multicultural Evening in Support of Community Arts
Fast-forward to 2017, a concept was born after seeing the benefits and happiness this encounter brought to the people. Then is when Happening: A Multicultural Evening in Support of Community Arts was made official. The concept behind this event was to collect funds to have enough resources to keep doing our work in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as to be a Multicultural space that celebrated diversity and was extremely intentional about inclusion. We gathered again on May 19th 2017, this time to support Muse Arts programming.
We made an open call for artists to participate, however, we quickly realized one night was way too short for the amount of talent that approached us.
2016 - Where It All Began...
Back in 2016, the Mexican Cultural House suffered the impact of a fire. Significant emotional distress was caused in the community, and so we made a call to convene other artists and members of the communities to uphold our fellow artists in need. There were 3 key aspects to make this possible: collaboration, unity, and generosity.
