Mind-blowing.
That’s how the executive director of the Multicultural Council of Windsor and Essex County (MCC) is describing the social media engagements for the opening weekend of the 2026 Carrousel of the Nations.
Fred Francis says the opening weekend saw 1.3 million social engagements on the MCC’s social media platforms, with 27,000 page views from the Greater Toronto Area.
He says last year, social media engagements hit one million for the entire two-weekend event.
Francis visited several villages over the opening weekend and says 111,700 people attended the villages.
He says Friday and Saturday were great, and once it cleared up on Sunday following the rain, villages bounced back.
Francis says out-of-town visitors enjoyed the event.
“There was a chartered bus from Sarnia going to Kingsville going to the Dutch Village, so that was exciting to hear that people chartered a bus all the way from Sarnia,” says Francis. “So all in all, weekend number one seems to be a huge hit, a huge success.”
He says some of the new villages, including the Iraqi village, ran out of food.
“We usually see that with the new villages, and Iraqi is a new village for us because it usually takes a year for the village organizers to understand the magnitude of Carrousel of the Nations and really, really experience the numbers of people coming out,” he says.
This year marks the 51st annual Carrousel of the Nations in Windsor-Essex.
The 2026 event includes 42 cultural villages.
It features authentic food, entertainment, music, dance, art, and traditions from around the world.
The new villages this year include the Iraqi, Brazilian, and Cambodian villages.
Francis says the top villages for the opening weekend include Greek, Brazilian, Canadian, Mexican, and Caribbean.
In 2025, there were 37 villages.
The festival resumes on Friday, June 19, and runs until June 21.