Peace Week United in Diversity Community Festival – More Than Just a Festival…

Melendez Morales D¹*

1. Cairns City Council, Cairns, Queensland, Australia

Peace Week has become an important yearly Council supported community event that is primarily community driven and independently funded through sponsorship, In-Kind support and the assistance of volunteers. Since the event began over 500 agencies, sponsors, community organisations, cultural groups, Council departments, local businesses, and volunteers have supported and participated in the event.

The success of Peace Week is founded on the belief that Peace is not simply the absence of war, but a constantly changing and fragile ideology that can be threatened if people in a community are not given the opportunity to connect, cooperate and learn to understand one another. But Peace Week is more than just a festival. The on-going engagement of participants have contributed to the on-going development of social capital, active citizenship community building and sustainability by creating opportunities for diversity to be appreciated by Council and the broader community beyond the festival context. Peace Week is a living breathing entity that has become one of Council’s most successful community engagement vehicles.

The success of the event has been measured by the level of support and participation received by the diversity of people, organisations, businesses, ideas and creative forms of expressions united in promoting the events mission statement: To Build Compassion and Understanding In The Community”. The assessment of the event is based on the number and diversity of organisations and participants who continue to participate in the festival every year, but with expanded networks; the extent, quality and effectiveness of their relationships with Council and one another, and/or how participants develop and support international links; engage in other non-festival related activities with people or organisations they met during Peace week, and the level and extend in which their relationships develop throughout time, (actively, symbolically and personally.)

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