"Kaleidoscope Mid-Autumn Moon Festival" turns out a great success at Mississauga Living Arts Centre

On the night of September 17, 2016, the Mississauga Living Arts Centre Hammerson Hall was packed with more than 400 performers of various ages and ethnic backgrounds as well as 1300 audience members from the various communities in the GTA celebrating the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon Festival of 2016. Produced by acclaimed Kaleidoscope Chinese Performing Arts society (KCPA) in partnership with more than 10 local art groups and organizations, the 2016 Kaleidoscope Mid-Autumn Moon Festival Gala proved a huge success with the audience astonished and burst out into applause many times throughout the show.

Directed by a crew of directors from the KCPA and other participating groups and individuals, the show consisted of four chapters, Blooming Flowers and the Full Moon, the Kaleidoscopic Maple Land, Memories of the Hometown and Emotions for the Autumn Moon. It was a 2.5-hour variety show that featured a magnificent presentation of various traditional Chinese arts associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival as well as cross-cultural performances of various forms of traditional arts including Indian, Slovakian and Chinese dance, martial arts, cheongsam fashion shows, Chinese opera, Chinese instrumental music as well as contemporary dance, Black pop music, Italian opera and choral music. A total of 22 acts were presented in a beautifully cohesive manner, performed by more than 200 KCPA members from various parts of the GTA together with more than 100 performers from other art and community groups of various ethnic backgrounds, including Sampradaya Dance Creations, Vychodna Slovak Dancers, Yang Yang Dance Studio, Mountain Edge Roots & Culture Band, Tongle Association, Heartland Creditview Community & Health Services, Yuan Yin Group, Wayland Li Martial Arts Centre, Dance Club of Mississauga French School Horizon Jeunesse, etc. A strong highlight of the show was its cross-cultural and interdisciplinary nature in that various styles of arts and various artistic elements were mixed and fused together in a beautiful manner. All the performances were characterized by a brilliant blend of dance, singing, costumes and dazzling effects of lighting and stage projections. At the end of the show, the audience gave a standing ovation with an endless applause for the success of the event.

The Kaleidoscope Mid-Autumn Moon Festival Gala is an annual multicultural event that has been run successfully by the Kaleidoscope Chinese Performing Arts Society at various venues in the GTA in the last 4 years. This year it first happened at the largest theatre in Mississauga. Funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage and sponsored by Respon Wealth Management Corp and other organizations, this year's Moon Festival Gala turned out to be the most successful in terms of either the quality of the show or the large number of artists and performers participated. As some audience members commented in the feedback forms provided, the event was astonishingly successful and worth the money and they would come to the show again next year!