New biennial festival promotes harmony through cultural cuisines, scents

A new biennial festival designed to foster racial and religious harmony among youth is set to launch, offering participants an immersive introduction to different cultures through sensory experiences centred on food and fragrance.

The initiative aims to build understanding and appreciation across communities by engaging young people in interactive experiences that highlight the distinctive tastes and scents of various cultural traditions. By focusing on these tangible elements of cultural identity, organisers hope to create meaningful connections between participants from different backgrounds.

The festival will rotate among institutions of higher learning every two years, ensuring accessibility to students across different campuses and regions. This rotating structure is designed to reach successive cohorts of young people and embed the festival as an ongoing platform for intercultural dialogue within the region's academic community.

The move reflects growing recognition of the role educational institutions can play in promoting social cohesion among younger generations. Through experiential learning centred on shared appreciation of diverse cultural heritage, the festival seeks to strengthen bonds of understanding at a formative stage.