The Montreal Lake Stompers performed at the annual Tapastrama multicultural event in Prince Albert over the weekend. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

By paNOW Staff

Multicultural festival

Tapastrama celebrates Prince Albert’s mosaic of cultures

Sep 29, 2025 | 11:56 AM

Prince Albert’s strong multicultural community was on display at the annual Tapastrama cultural festival – an event that has been taking place in the city for nearly half a century.

Organizer and executive director of the Prince Albert Multicultural Council, Michelle Hassler said it started with just a few dance groups who gathered to share their food and culture, but has grown bigger each year.

“We started to open it up to the public and it’s grown in the content of a lot of multicultural groups from all over the province who have now heard about Tapastrama and have contacted us wanting to perform and showcase their culture. [It’s] really good because that’s the main purpose of the festival – is for everybody to showcase their culture and be proud of it and that’s the part that has really grown.”

For the first time in a while, the country of Indonesia was showcased at the two-day event which took place in the cafetorium at Carlton High School. Hassler said Sask-Peru also attended to help represent the mosaic of culture in the community.

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The Ashden School of Irish Dance and the PA Barveenok Ukrainian Dancers from Prince Albert represented the city. There was also good representation from traditional First Nations and Métis groups including Iron Eagle Drum and Dance Group., Montreal Lake Stompers, and Creeland Dancers.

Hassler hopes more local groups pop up in Prince Albert in the future, but for now, she said they are happy to have partnerships with several cultural groups throughout Saskatchewan including a Latin dance group that participated for the first time this year.

“It’s so amazing to learn from other cultures. We always think that they are different, but to be honest, if we sit down and listen and talk, we find a lot of commonalities in culture. No matter where it is in the world, there are similarities and we want people to find that rather than focus on the differences.”

The Concordia Junior Alpenrose Dancers were founded in 2014 by two families looking for a way to celebrate their German Heritage. (PA Multicultural Council/Facebook)

While the event serves a different purpose, the community is being invited to come together once again tomorrow, Sept. 30 for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. There are events throughout the city that will honour survivors of residential schools and remember those who did not.

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panews@pattisonmedia.com