By SAT News Desk
Melbourne, 30 July: The Australian Football League (AFL) is gearing up for the 2015 Toyota AFL Multicultural Round which will be celebrated from 7 – 9 August during Round 19 of the Toyota AFL Premiership Season.
Multicultural Round highlights the contribution multicultural communities have made to the game’s history and welcomes new communities to embrace Australian Football as fans, players, umpires or administrators.
“With 27 per cent of Australians born overseas and around 200 languages spoken every day in Australian homes, the AFL is committed to reflecting Australia’s cultural diversity and as an industry, we have invested heavily in community development. We take our leadership very seriously – as evidenced by the AFL’s Racial Vilification and Respect and Responsibility policies which were established in 1995”, says an AFL media release.
This year marks 10 years since the AFL launched the AFL Multicultural Program in 2005 to engage people of all ages from multicultural backgrounds in the game.
Many activities will take place this Multicultural Round including:
– The first ever AFL Multicultural Festival celebrating ‘Many Cultures, One Game’ will be held at the MCG in Yarra Park at the Collingwood v Carlton game on August 8;
– The AFL has partnered with the Victorian Government on the Embrace Diversity campaign which encourages support for cultural diversity across various social media channels;
– All nine AFL matches during Multicultural Round will each be broadcast in the seven most spoken languages in Australia, other than English via the AFL app;
– All venues will feature in-language markings on field and in-language messages in stadium.
– The AFL match Sherrin football will feature Arabic, Hindi or Mandarin and at each game the AFL umpire uniforms will feature the word umpire translated into one of the seven most spoken languages in Australia, other than English.
– The AFL and Australia Post have together launched the 2015 My AFL Passport Ticketing campaign which encourages people who hold an international passport to attend an AFL game for free in Multicultural Round. Visit: www.afl.com.au/myaflpassport
– During Multicultural Round the AFL will highlight the role of its 13 Australia Post AFL Multicultural player ambassadors and 233 community volunteers across the country who share their passion for Australian Football and connect communities through engaging in AFL.
Many Cultures, One Game
The first ever AFL Multicultural Festival celebrating ‘Many Cultures, One Game’ will be held at the MCG in Yarra Park at the Collingwood v Carlton game on August 8, thanks to the support of the Victorian government. The festival will run from 11.30am – 5.30pm and will include loads of free and fun activities for the entire family.
One can explore many wonderful cultures with traditional dance performances from around the world, a great selection of delicious multicultural food or see the kids to practice their goal kicking at the Woolworths AFL playground – there will be something for everyone. AFL footballers, team mascots, face painting, henna tattoos and plenty of giveaways are just some of the highlights to feature.
The festival will also host a range of live entertainment including Pop Asia, Hip Hop dance, African drummers, Bollywood and many others.
A big screen will broadcast the Collingwood v Carlton match live and the Toyota AFL Premiership Cup will also be on display giving fans the opportunity to have their photo taken with the prestigious silverware.
– SAT News Service
