More than 1.7 million people over State Pension age receive Attendance Allowance or Pension Age Disability Payment, with rates rising from April 2026

More than 1.7 million individuals over State Pension age across Great Britain are currently receiving up to £1,362 each month through a combination of two separate payments provided by the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) and Social Security Scotland.

Attendance Allowance and Pension Age Disability Payment (PADP) are paid independently of the State Pension, but can offer additional financial assistance for older people with a disability, long-term illness, or physical or mental health condition.

Attendance Allowance and PADP are not means-tested and are currently valued at either £73.90 for the lower rate or £110.40 for the higher rate each week. As the benefit is typically paid every four weeks, this equates to either £295.60 or £441.60 every payment period.

Pensioners could supplement their current income by up to £5,740 to help with extra costs through either of the disability benefits. However, this is set to increase to £5,959 over the 2026/27 financial year.

Both DWP and Social Security Scotland have now published the proposed payment rates from April 6. The New and Basic State Pension will rise by 4.8 per cent while Attendance Allowance and Pension Age Disability Payments will increase by 3.8 per cent, reports the Daily Record.

The uprating will see the lower rate of both benefits rise from £73.90 per week to £76.70 and the higher rate will increase from £110.40 per week to £114.60. This amounts to either £306.80 or £458.40 every four-week payment period.

The full New State Pension is currently worth £230.25 per week and as the payment is typically made every four weeks this amounts to £921. Annual payments are worth £11,973 over the 2025/26 financial year. This will rise to £241.30 per week or £965.20 every four-week payment period in 2026/27.

Combined with the increased higher rate for Attendance Allowance or PADP (£458.40), someone receiving the full New State Pension could get £1,423 every month from April – though in separate payments. It’s important to note that not all of the 4.1 million people on the New State Pension receive the full amount as it is linked to National Insurance Contributions.

The full Basic State Pension is currently worth £176.45 per week, £705.80 every four-week payment period. Annual payments are worth £9,175.40 over the 2025/26 financial year. Payments will rise to £184.90 per week from April 6, some £739.65 every four-week pay period.

To check your own future State Pension payments, use the online forecasting tool on GOV.UK.

Pensioners with a Scottish postcode can no longer claim Attendance Allowance and need to apply for Pension Age Disability Payment from Social Security Scotland. The amount someone receives for Attendance Allowance or PADP depends on the level of care required.

The benefit is designed to help people of State Pension age with daily living costs as a result of their condition, which can also help them remain independent in their own home for longer. There is no mobility component attached to Attendance Allowance or PADP.

When is the best time to visit Skipton, ‘Gateway to the Dales’ and England’s newly crowned epicentre of national happiness?

Perhaps on a bright summer’s day, with the narrow boats gleaming on the Leeds and Liverpool canal and otters bobbing.

Or on Sheep Day, in June, when the roads are closed, the town is ovine crazy and a chap called Julian Kaye makes a special Sheeptown gin – ‘We use water from the canal and chuck in a few botanicals’.

Or perhaps during the big Christmas lights switch on and Santa Run, when around a sixth of the town’s 15,500 population dress up in full Father Christmas outfits and run through the cobbled streets.

But instead, I visit on a cold, grey, wet week in February. Café windows are dripping with condensation and the market stalls – selling everything from cauliflowers to scones the size of your head and dog beds – are battened down against the drizzle. Flat caps are pulled down, hard. 

But George the fishmonger, who has been up since 1am and is now serving from his van, is roaring cheery greetings.

‘Good morning, Brian! Ow are you? Morning, Mary! Ow’s your mum? This is Rebecca, her parents are the local undertakers!’ he says, waving around a pink langoustine.

‘I’ve been doing this for 38 years, so I know ‘em all and they’re all lovely, lovely people. The very best. Of course they’re happy. They live here!’ 

And through the drizzle, he tells me how much he loves his job, how he used to work with his wife, until she fell one New Year’s Eve and broke her shoulder and now he works with his son-in-law Nikky – and that while they bicker gently, it’s better than it was working with his wife.

He tells me how 80 per cent of his fish comes from the Shetlands, via his cousin, who also supplies Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City football squad, because Pep doesn’t like farmed fish.

Donald Ripley, nearly 92 and out buying teacakes to share with his ‘darling wife Kathleen’, is equally perky. 

‘What’s good about Skipton? Everything! I’ve lived here all my life. Never wanted to live anywhere else – why would I?’ he says.

‘It’s the people. It’s always the people – though, like anywhere, you always get one or two baddies. And sometimes you get free beer at the Working Men’s Club, so that’s quite a bonus. So yes, I’m happy.’

So is Julian Kaye, of Sheeptown gin fame, who runs the brilliant Wright Wine and Whisky Co.

Julian tells me how he was one of the original sponsors of the Calendar Girls, members of the nearby Rylstone Women’s Institute group who, in 1999, famously stripped naked for charity with carefully placed spider plants and buns, and were later immortalised in a film starring Helen Mirren, Julie Walters and Celia Imrie. 

‘Ros, who ran a dress shop from what is now our whisky room, was Miss November!’ he says.

And Jem Darling, 22, who works in the Black Horse pub on the High Street, tells me they’ve been flat out today with a funeral.

‘Never seen so many people go through so much food. They were really going for it. Very jolly crowd. They had a great time.’

Gosh. It feels a bit like a parallel universe. 

And it is easy to see why the recent survey by property website Rightmove saw the pretty town of Skipton in North Yorkshire pipping the London boroughs of Richmond-upon-Thames and Camden, as well as Woodbridge in Suffolk and nearby arch happiness rivals, Harrogate.

‘We’ve come second to Harrogate before,’ says Joe Langley, of Hardisty estate agents. ‘But they’re different – flashier, more obvious money. There are a lot of full pockets here, but we don’t walk about in Gucci loafers.

‘This is proper Yorkshire, so you’ll always find someone to stand with and talk.’ 

Which is important, because the glory was not just for happiness and access to nature and green spaces – revealed this week in another survey as the key things families look for – but also the friendliness of the residents and access to essential services, such as schools and transport.

Skipton boasts a few rather less essential things, too.

These include the 900-year-old castle off the High Street, one of the best preserved medieval castles in the country. 

For centuries it was the seat of the Clifford family but since the 1950s has been home to the Fattorini family – Italian jewellers who, I am told proudly by at least five locals, made the original FA Cup trophy.

And there’s the teeny but exquisite museum – which was shortlisted in a national museum contest alongside the National Portrait Gallery and the Young V&A – which has a priceless Shakespeare first folio on display that was discovered in a backroom cupboard under a sink only a few years ago.

As Jenny in Kutters hair salon puts it: ‘Nowhere’s perfect, is it? But there’s a lot to go at here. And at least people are friendly.’

She’s right. Stand in the street looking lost and people will come running to help.

Pop into one of the town’s 50-odd (yes, really) pubs and restaurants on your own, and you’ll be surrounded by friendly faces in minutes, sharing stories about how world famous pie makers Stanforth’s lost their crown to rivals Farmhouse Fare (apparently there was a fallout when the business was sold and the seller took the recipe with him).

Or how tickets for the annual ferret race extravaganza (next Wednesday evening, in nearby Appletreewick) sell out in one minute flat – ‘It’s like Glastonbury!’ – and that some furry runners are perked with a little tot of whisky.

And, in Donald’s case, about the shocking thing that’s happened to teacakes these days.

‘They used to be twice the size. They’re going to be scones before we know it!’ he cries.

But most of all today, everyone’s discussing happiness. What it means. Why it matters.

‘You don’t have to be jumping about saying, I’m happy, I’m happy, clapping your hands,’ says Debbie Brooksbank behind the bar in the Boat House. ‘It’s about being content.’

‘It’s not about having money or cars or stuff,’ says Peter Lockwood, of boat hire company Pennine Cruisers. ‘Not for us.’

The town’s lovely mayor, Councillor Winston Feather, puts it differently: ‘I’m not always the happiest person, but I’m so, so grateful to live here.’

And there’s a lot to be grateful for.

Skipton has good schools – two grammars and an academy that has recently been turned around – sports teams, a lovely leisure centre, walking groups, book groups, bridge clubs, a market four days a week, an actual bank and post office (albeit in a branch of Subway), theatre and a cinema, where I’m told several times that the premiere of Calendar Girls took place the day before the one in Leicester Square.

Crime figures are also relatively low – a good thing given the police station is open for only four hours a day and officers have to schlep over from Harrogate. There aren’t even holding cells here any more.

So, every once in a while, the head honcho of North Yorkshire Police (who lives in Skipton), puts on his full regalia – ‘stars and stripes and everything’ – and walks through town. 

Just to show a police presence . . . on his day off. But before we think we’re in an episode of James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small which, naturally, was filmed nearby (‘Our good friend Andy the vet is the consultant hand that goes up the cow’s backside’ says Julian), it is important to remember that of course not everyone here is happy.

How could they be? There are always people having a bad time thanks to illness, grief, depression, poverty and loneliness.

Certainly, Jodie a hairdresser with pink-rinsed hair, seems to loathe it. ‘It’s not a happy place,’ she insists, crossly. 

‘My customers are always moaning – about everything from the world to the weather to the fact we have put our prices up from five pounds a cut to six – after five years!’

And Claire, 54, points out, quite rightly, that behind ‘all that bloody happiness’, the local food bank is in hot demand.

Another woman who doesn’t want to be named, whispers about a stabbing and even a murder, ‘only a few years back’. 

Also, while Skipton Building Society head office employs 900 people and there are good transport links to Leeds and Bradford, access to decent jobs is not as good as it could be, house prices are much higher than in any of the surrounding villages and so the young struggle a bit.

‘There’s a dark side to Skipton, like there is everywhere,’ says Debbie in the Boat House Bar. ‘A lot of youths smashing about in the bus station. I think there was even a glassing. They’re bored. No youth clubs. Not enough for them to do, like anywhere else.’

So I head to the bus station where today, happily, no one is smashing it up, and get chatting to Charlie who is 16 and studying business and waiting for a bus with his mates.

‘It’s all right here, I s’pose. There’s cafés and a cinema and somewhere to play football,’ he says. ‘But it’s quite boring. It can’t be the happiest place, surely? There’s got to be happier places than this!’

Okay, so, given a magic wand, what would he do? ‘Make the weather better,’ he says, without hesitation. ‘Or move to Monaco. Which sounds much nicer.’

Matt, meanwhile, who works in Bek’s Electrical shop and has lived here since his missus threw him out of their home in Castle Hill, is not a huge fan.

‘I wouldn’t die if I didn’t live here. My customers are a merry bunch, but prices are always rising. People keep going on about how bloody happy it is – but it’s all about visitors.’

Those visitors arrive by the coachload from spring onwards. But of course, they also bring their wallets, which is a good thing because there are a few empty shops dotted around.

And in the beautiful Holy Trinity Church, perched at the top of the High Street and dating back to the 12th century, the heating hasn’t worked for three years and the congregation have been cuddled up with hot water bottles and blankets.

Even the famous narrowboats have had a time of it, what with all the canals drying up. 

But now the hire companies have ditched holiday rentals and switched to day trips, with shiny boats called Bill and Ben, Jack and Jill and Wallace And Gromit.

‘It’s the end of an era,’ says Peter Lockwood. ‘But you’ve just got to get on with it, ‘aven’t you.’ 

Happily, the endless pubs, microbreweries and clubs are thriving – two more opened just this week.

Just don’t call it Little Ibiza, as some newspapers did last year when reports of the great nightlife here hit the Press.

‘We didn’t love that – that wasn’t really our thing,’ says Gerry, 54, eating a (Farmhouse Fare) pie on the bridge with her dog. 

‘We’re more about the chat here, really. We love to chat, about anything.’

Indeed. In the Castle Inn, Alison, 62, tells me that half the town is haunted – including my lovely hotel, The Woolly Sheep Inn. 

She insists there are secret tunnels, big enough for horses, running under the High Street and that she was at school with one of the Yorkshire Ripper’s early victims, who was three years older than her. 

‘Ooh, it was terrible. We weren’t allowed to walk around the town at all.’

Skipton is an extraordinary place. Not perfect, of course not. But it is warm, straightforward and so, so friendly – partly because people actually look at you rather than at their mobile phones as they walk about.

But the highlight is surely Skipton Sound Bar, a live music venue near the bus station with a special oldies afternoon on Wednesdays which, by 2.15pm, is rammed and booming with Northern Soul music.

‘You have to get here by two to get a seat,’ shouts Doreen, 84, looking gorgeous in a sparkly top and with a perfect blow dry.

‘My friend Joan’s coming on the bus from Ilkley Road and we usually stay till about nine and then go to a speakeasy round the corner afterwards, then a taxi home just to be safe!

‘Come and dance,’ she cries, and as she boogies off to groove with her pal Justine, it is impossible not to join in.

So, finally, what advice would they give to perk up the rest of us?

For Doreen, it’s: ‘Life’s too short to moan about the weather. Mind your own business, get out and enjoy yourself, have some fun.’

George the fishmonger says: ‘Just be content with what you’ve got. If you’ve got £100, don’t spend £110.’

But I think my favourite comes from Julian, who puts it like this: ‘I always say to my kids, “Your word’s your word and be nice”. If everyone lived by that, there wouldn’t be so much strife in the world, would there? Just be nice, it don’t take much.’

Leeds boss Daniel Farke praised a “massive win” for his side after they beat Premier League relegation rivals Nottingham Forest 3-1 at Elland Road to climb nine points clear of the bottom three.

Two goals in four first-half minutes from Jayden Bogle – his first in the top flight for Leeds – and Noah Okafor put Leeds in control before Dominic Calvert-Lewin notched his 10th league goal of the season soon after the interval.

Forest’s new signing from Napoli, Lorenzo Lucca, headed a late consolation for the visitors, who stayed one place and six points above the drop zone.

Farke said: “I’m very proud because this was complicated game for us. First and foremost, because we had lost the last game (4-0 at home against Arsenal).

“I know it was Arsenal, but a loss always does something with the confidence and belief. It’s always difficult to respond after a loss, and this made it a difficult game.

“Second, it was, of course, a game where there was a bit more on the line, not just the three points. Sometimes during the season there’s a game that feels just a bit more important than other games.

“And then to deliver in this way, with such a spirited performance, with our intensity to be so dominant and to play such a good football game.

“I think it will do a lot with our confidence, our belief, our spirit within the group. This was second to none today, and for that, it’s a massive performance and a massive win.”

Farke singled out Bulgaria midfielder Ilia Gruev and Switzerland winger Okafor for special praise.

“Ilia looked unbelievably sharp in training this week,” the German boss added. “He’s so reliable.

“With him, you always get a six or seven out of 10. Today, it was pretty close to a 10 out of 10. Two assists, many key passes. I thought he was outstanding.

“Noah gave one of his best performances in a Leeds shirt. He can take on players, score goals and deliver assists. We know this, but also today, his work was great against the ball to win it back.”

Forest boss Sean Dyche felt his side were just beginning to ask questions of Leeds before conceding quickfire first-half goals, but admitted the home side deserved their win.

“We knew they’d start fast and I thought we weathered that OK actually,” Dyche said.

“We were having our best spell and the frustration for me is their first goal was such a poor goal to concede when we were now asking questions of them.

“And the third is the one that really kills you, because by then you’re looking at it thinking ‘OK, we can nick the next goal and if you get that it’s 2-1 and all of a sudden everything changes’.

“But we gave away another really poor goal defensively, but the pleasing thing, if there is such a thing from today, is we kept on going and kept on going.”

The Denver Metro housing market just logged one of its worst months in nearly two decades. Only 1,919 homes sold in January, putting it among the slowest months since the 2008 financial crisis.

Other comparable months? January 2010 and January 2011, when the economy was still reeling from the crash.

This isn’t a collapse. It’s the result of three years of exhaustion.

Since the post-COVID reset in 2023, the market has been stuck in neutral with prices flat, sales stagnant, and everyone waiting for something to give.

Buyers are tired of high rates and scarce inventory. Sellers are tired of sitting. And the result is a market that’s just tired.

But January also delivered unexpected momentum, according to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors’ monthly report.

Early activity picks up

New listings surged about 153% from December, as sellers relisted homes that they had pulled off the market during the holidays.

Buyer activity followed, with pending sales jumping 48% for detached homes and 44% for attached homes compared to December.

While some of that activity is seasonal bounce-back, the timing is earlier than usual, likely thanks to unseasonably warm, dry weather that got both buyers and sellers off the sidelines sooner than expected.

Still, prices remained soft.

The median sale price for detached homes is down about 4% year-over-year, and attached homes are off 2%.

Buyers are also negotiating harder—the close-to-list ratio dropped to 97.9%, down from 98.5% a year ago, as sellers give ground.

Inventory grows, buyers benefit

Active listings hit 8,228 in January, up 8% from December and 7% from a year ago.

That’s unusual for this time of year, when inventory typically shrinks. More choice means more negotiating power, and buyers are starting to use it.

“The Denver metro typically has very predictable seasonality,” said Amanda Snitker, chair of the DMAR Market Trends Committee.

“Even though the last three years have been essentially flat in both home sales and the median sale price, seasonality is still apparent.”

Her advice? Don’t wait for some dramatic market shift.

“The best advantage in 2026 will come from acting when personal timing and financial readiness align.”

Luxury market tells two stories

The million-dollar-plus segment usually doesn’t wake up until mid-February. This year, it came out swinging in January—at least on the detached side.

Detached luxury listings nearly tripled from December, with 594 homes hitting the market. Buyer interest followed: pending sales jumped 58% month over month, with 325 detached homes going under contract.

But the attached luxury market? It’s struggling. Only 12 condos and townhomes priced over $1 million went under contract in January—down 25% from December and nearly 30% from last year.

Attached homes priced between $1 million and $2 million have nearly 8 months of inventory. Above $2 million? A staggering 26 months. That’s more than two years’ worth of supply.

Ontario’s solicitor general — the minister responsible for policing in the province — is declining to speak about the arrest of multiple officers during an organized crime investigation that is rocking law enforcement in and around Toronto.

A York Regional Police investigation into organized crime led to the arrest of seven Toronto police officers and has now spread to neighbouring Peel Regional Police, where three officers have been suspended.

Claims against the Toronto cops related to alleged corruption, leaking information to an organized crime group and bribery. The charges have not been proven in court.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said Friday if the officers are guilty, they “deserve to be thrown in jail.” Premier Doug Ford said “bad actors” would be “held accountable.”

The man responsible for Ontario’s policing, however, has declined to comment on the scandal.

Global News approached Solicitor General Michael Kerzner’s office for a statement on Thursday and an interview on Friday. On both occasions, his staff declined, offering no comment on the police scandal.

“Unfortunately, we are unable to accommodate this interview. The Premier was asked a number of questions about the matter this morning, and yesterday. Those comments stand as response from our government,” a spokesperson said in a brief statement.

They said questions should be directed to local police.

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As solicitor general, Kerzner is responsible for public security, law enforcement and policing in Ontario. His ministry enacted a major overhaul of police rules last year, including allowing for some officers to be suspended without pay.

Ontario Liberal MPP Karen McCrimmon said that Kerzner should come out and take questions on the arrests, addressing the organized crime investigation to reinforce public confidence.

“This is serious, this cuts right to the heart of the relationships between the people and the police,” she said.

“It’s his job to address these kinds of serious issues; otherwise, why bother having it? I think we need full transparency, full acouuntability and we need to start rebuilding that trust.”

McCrimmon is calling for a judicial inquiry to independently establish how seven Toronto police officers were allegedly corrupted.

Ford, however, suggested he didn’t believe there was a broader problem to investigate.

“I love our police,” he told reporters. “Do we have a few bad actors? Yeah, they’re bad actors, they’re going to be held accountable, sure as I’m standing here. It’s an ongoing police investigation.”

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Some American-made alcohol will be returning to SAQ shelves next week, but only temporarily.

The Quebec government has directed the province’s liquor board to sell off select U.S. products nearing their expiration dates.

Most of the items being liquidated are alcoholic creams and liqueurs and will be marked down by 15 per cent, beginning Feb. 12, according to a release from the SAQ.

Officials estimate the sales will generate about $9 million, with all proceeds donated to Food Banks of Quebec.

The ban on importing new American alcohol products, introduced last year, remains in effect.

Quebec ordered the SAQ to stop selling and importing American alcohol in early March 2025 as a retaliatory measure against U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods, according to the government of Quebec.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

RCMP in New Brunswick are warning about a rise in youth radicalization, which they believe is fuelled by extremist online spaces.

Just this week, police said they arrested a youth late last year for the facilitation of a terrorist activity. That youth is now under a terrorism peace bond, which is a first for the province.

“A terrorism peace bond can be used when investigators fear that a terrorist offence may be carried out, enabling the use of robust monitoring and de-escalation tools,” RCMP said in a release.

“This case is part of a broader trend observed by the (Eastern Region’s National Security Enforcement Section) in New Brunswick involving youth radicalization driven by exposure to extremist online spaces and peer-to-peer networks.”

A spokesperson for the RCMP wouldn’t say which extremist network, if any, the youth was a part of.

“The youth is subject to very strict conditions as a result of entering into this peace bond. Police services across (New Brunswick) are aware of this peace bond and will, as they do every day, work diligently to keep our communities safe,” wrote Insp. Aaron Glode in an email.

David Hofmann, the director of the Criminology and Criminal Justice Program at the University of New Brunswick, said youth extremism is a problem seen nationwide.

“This is the next big thing security-wise. The government and security agencies are focused on the fact that there are young people who, typically through the internet but also through face-to-face interaction are becoming more radical,” he said.

Hofmann said he believes the New Brunswick case could potentially be related to nihilist violent extremism groups, such as the 764 network, or possibly a far-right extremist group.

The 764 network is known to target children and youth by manipulating them into recording and sharing intimate images or taking part in acts of self-harm, violence and animal cruelty.

“Whether this is neo-Nazi far-right content, whether this nihilistic violent extremism, it’s the heinousness. It’s the awfulness of the act,” he said.

764 added to list of terrorist entities

Last December, Canada added 764 to its list of terrorist entities.

In total, four new groups were added under the Criminal Code, including three transnational online networks that promote ideologically motivated violent extremism (IMVE).

The move marked the first time any country had 764 as a terrorist organization, a statement from Public Safety Canada said.

In Nova Scotia, Halifax Regional Police alleged a 16-year-old  charged in January with child pornography-related and inciting hatred charges was affiliated with the 764 network.

The Crown has since dropped four of five charges against that teen, who is scheduled to return to court Feb. 26, because there was “no realistic prospect of conviction on those four counts” after reviewing the evidence.

Meanwhile, Hofmann said extremism can be very challenging to identify and police, especially if ideologies are spread globally.

“It’s incredibly difficult to police this sort of thing, as the internet is ubiquitous … it’s like finding a needle in a haystack,” he said.

RCMP are asking the public to remain vigilant and inform police of any suspicious activities.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The University of Guelph says its campus safety office has completed an investigation into a pub night that saw students wear T-shirts with hate symbols and discriminatory slurs and language.

The Student Federation of the Ontario Agricultural College posted on Facebook that the January event in question was an Aggie Pub night. The theme was graffiti night, where students wore white shirts and other students painted graffiti on their shirts.

Last month, the University of Guelph said in an email to staff, faculty and students that it was investigating “a deeply troubling” on-campus event.

On Friday, the university confirmed to CBC News that investigation is “now complete” but it cannot share what, if any, consequences the students may have faced.

“Students alleged to have participated in behaviour that violates university policy have been referred to the Office of Student Accountability. Decisions regarding individual student responsibility for alleged breaches of policy, and any resulting sanctions, will be made in accordance with the resolution processes outlined in the student rights and responsibilities policy,” the university said in a statement.

“This process is currently underway. The university cannot comment on the specific outcomes for individual students.”

The Guelph Police Service said at the time that officers were also investigating the pub night, but spokesperson Scott Tracey said Friday officers were assisting the university’s safety office and the “investigation was entirely undertaken” by the school.

“Any punishment deemed appropriate by school officials would be handled internally, and there is no ongoing involvement by police,” Tracey said.

The Student Federation of the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) said in a Facebook post on Jan. 20 that the pub night had taken place during the previous week and “there was a deeply troubling incident involving the use of racist, antisemitic, anti-Black, and homophobic language, and the appearance of hate symbols.”

“These actions are unacceptable and do not reflect the values of our college,” the post went on to say.

“As a student community, we all share responsibility for upholding respect, accountability, and inclusion. We encourage students to speak up, support one another, and choose empathy in their actions. OAC must remain a welcoming and inclusive place for all.”

A southeastern Manitoba multicultural festival is bringing communities together to showcase their traditions.

Culturama at the Pat Porter Active Living Centre in Steinbach has grown into a six-day festival since it began six years ago.

Pat Porter executive director Audrey Harder said the event originally was three days long and featured prominent cultures in the city, including the Filipino and Ukrainian communities.

“We are such a diverse community, and I don’t think people realize it,” Harder said on Thursday. “My goal was to see community gather and accept and understand and just grow.”

Since then, other cultural groups have reached out to participate. This year, attendees could visit Ukraine, the Philippines, South Korea, Nigeria, Brazil, India and Cuba without leaving Steinbach.

This is Ruth Olorunfemi’s second year volunteering with the Nigerian group. She moved from Nigeria to Steinbach in 2023 because she has cousins and a sibling here.

“Since we are from different parts of the world, we come to be in Canada here just to express our own nationality, how our traditions work,” Olorunfemi said while setting up a floral display. “That’s what Culturama is all about.”

Olorunfemi says Steinbach is like home already because of the friendly environment.

Last year, she enjoyed learning about Fijian customs and tasting their food.

“It’s a unique way to let them know how you were brought up, how you can teach them where you are from, how they can learn from you … and try to learn from their culture also,” Olorunfemi said.

Olorunfemi would love to see the festival continue growing to include even more cultural groups.

Folklorama is inspiring to Harder, but not everyone is able to make it to Winnipeg to get that experience.

Cultural understanding is a personal thing, she said.

“I see it as an opportunity for the community to unite and become one. No matter where you’re from, who you are, you love your neighbour,” Harder said.

“At the end of the day, that understanding is there, that love is there, and we become one as a community.”

Program co-ordinator Carla Walker says the groups that present often bring cultural clothing for Harder and her to wear during the evening.

On Wednesday, Walker was helped into a hanbok, an article of traditional Korean clothing. The hanbok had been worn by one of the participants for her wedding.

“It was quite an honour to be able to do that,” Walker said. “I thanked her and said what an honour it was. She had said to me, ‘It was quite an honour for us, for you to do that.'”

Walker hopes those who attend the festival feel like they’ve stepped into the country they’re learning about.

“It’s been a really beautiful response from the community each night,” Walker said. “We’ve been just packed in our gym, and I’ve been really excited about that.”

Walker and Harder say tickets have sold out almost every night.

All money from ticket sales go back to the participating groups to cover costs of things like food. Remaining funds are rolled over to support the festival next year.

The final night of Culturama takes place Saturday, with a glimpse into Cuba.