Mississauga mayor hopeful huge summer festivals will return to Celebration Square this year

The huge annual cultural festivals and other large-scale events Mississauga residents love so much might return once again to Celebration Square this summer.

Absent the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, popular festivals including Rib Fest, Italfest, Japan Festival, Polish Festival, movie nights and many others just might make it back to the square in 2022.

In an Instagram interview with insauga.com publisher Khaled Iwamura, Mayor Bonnie Crombie provided a definite “maybe” in response to the big question: Will all these fun summertime events and festivals at Celebration Square be back this year?

“I’m hopeful…I think so,” said Crombie, noting that, “even the (Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table) feels we’re nearing the end of this because Omicron is so transmissible, it’s overtaken our community and the symptoms are so mild that it won’t allow even a severe variant to take a foothold in our community.

“It will cause this to become endemic…rather than pandemic and we’ll learn to live with it,” the mayor continued, adding Omicron will become as common as some of the other relatively mild viruses. “We’ll still have to be careful, but I think to a certain degree we have learned to live with it and now that we’re vaccinated, should you contract COVID-19 or Omicron, you will be protected.”

In addition to the aforementioned summertime festivals and events, residents may also be looking forward to Muslimfest, the Mosaic Festival, Ukrainian Festival and a variety of music festivals and performances this year.

“I can’t wait. I so hope we’re going forward with all of that,” said Crombie, adding, “…some of these groups need to make financial commitments to ensure these festivals go forward and they need to start thinking about that now. It’s grant season…they’re all applying for grants and they’ll have to make those decisions whether they’ll be virtual again or we’ll actually allow physical contact in the square with about 20,ooo people…”

Celebration Square typically hosts hundreds of free events such as festivals, concerts, movies and fitness classes.

Last summer, which marked the square’s 10th anniversary, City of Mississauga officials hosted a number of smaller events at the gathering spot as the larger festivals were once again cancelled due to the pandemic.