HAPA-PALOOZA FESTIVAL:

CANADA’S LARGEST CELEBRATION OF MIXED HERITAGE & HYBRID IDENTITY

A 6-day festival featuring a vibrant fusion of music, art, storytelling, film, dance and community gatherings celebrating mixed heritage and hybrid identity.

VANCOUVER, B.C.—Hapa-palooza welcomes all people to 7 FREE public events during its festival September 23 to 28, 2014, in locations in Vancouver chosen for central and easy access by public transportation. Now in its fourth year, Hapa-palooza Festival is Canada’s largest festival celebrating and stimulating awareness of mixed heritage and hybrid identity. Held annually in Vancouver, a diverse city that celebrates hybridity, synergy and acceptance, Hapa-palooza Festival embraces the word ‘Hapa,’ of Hawaiian origins, as a broad term for people identifying as having mixed heritage. Hosted by the Hybrid Ancestry Public Arts (HAPA) Society, Hapa-palooza Festival features an unprecedented array of mixed-heritage artists in the mediums of film, music, visual and literary arts.

This year, Hapa-palooza will honour three remarkable community leaders of mixed heritage by presenting the first ever Hapa-palooza Hip Hapa Hooray! awards reception. This year’s recipients include the Youth Achievement Award presented to Ann Makosinski (16-year-old inventor of the hollow flashlight that runs on human heat and 2013 Google Science Fair winner), Community Builder Award presented toKip Fulbeck (award-winning US artist, activist, actor and author) and the Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Fred Wah (Governor General’s Award Winner and Canada’s fifth Parliamentary Poet Laureate).

The festival is honoured to be supported by the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver Public Library, and Citizenship and Immigration Canada. As well as numerous community partners, including the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre, Vancouver Asian Film Festival, Beats without Borders and Eclipse Awards.

A full listing of Hapa-palooza Festival events can be found at hapapalooza.com

MEDIA CONTACT

Zarah Martz
info@hapapalooza.com
604-250-4772