The Kumbaya Festival was an annual

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

music and arts festival in the 1990s."Switching jazz singer Molly Johnson on and off"
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', November 22, 2012. It was organized by

Molly Johnson Margaret Leslie "Molly" Johnson, Order of Canada, OC is a Canadian Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter of pop and jazz. Biography Johnson began as a child performer, receiving formal training from the National Ballet School and the Banff Schoo ...

as a benefit for Canadian charities and groups doing work around

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...

and

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

. The festival was broadcast live on

MuchMusic Much (an abbreviation for its full name MuchMusic) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. MuchMusic launched on August 31 ...

each year, with the broadcast including a toll-free number which home viewers could call to make additional donations."Kumbaya - get bigger, raise more". ''Canadian Fundraiser'', November 27, 1995. Compilation CDs of performances from the festival were also subsequently released to raise additional funds."Kumbaya disc needs more odd couplings"
''Toronto Star'' - Toronto, Ont. By Peter Howell and Geoff Chapman Sep 2, 1995 Page: L.8 The festival raised over $1 million during its years of activity. Each annual festival consisted primarily of musical performers, although each also featured numerous writers reading literary pieces, as well as actors, media personalities, HIV/AIDS activists and other Canadian public figures speaking on the importance of the HIV/AIDS issue. Although the Kumbaya Foundation, the organization which staged the festival, is still active in Canadian and international HIV/AIDS fundraising as of 2014, the festival itself has not been staged since 1996. Johnson has, however, expressed an interest in reviving the festival.

Performers and speakers

The lists of participants can be found at the Kumbaya Foundation website.

1993

1994

1995

1996

References

External links

* {{cite web, title=Kumbaya Foundation, url=http://kumbaya.ca/ , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706111129/http://kumbaya.ca/ , archive-date=2011-07-06 , url-status=unfit Music festivals in Toronto 1993 establishments in Ontario HIV/AIDS in Canada Music festivals established in 1993 LGBT-related television specials