The 16-day multicultural celebration in Hamilton during the Pan Am Games is starting to come into focus, and it is going to go out with a bang.

Tourism Hamilton announced Wednesday a host of off-the-field events that will happen throughout the games, which is set to begin July 10. It starts with It's Your Festival in Gage Park and builds to a grand finish at Pier 4 that will feature a 1,000-seat beer garden, big screens for the Gold-medal game, and a fireworks performance set to a live orchestra.

There's something there for everybody. - Shelly Merlo, Pan Am cultural coordinator

"We wanted to show Hamilton in the best light possible," said Shelly Merlo, Pan Am cultural coordinator for the city. "And Hamilton goes out with a bang."

Collectively called "Hamilton Kicks it Up!", the multicultural festivities start with It's Your Festival, normally held on Canada Day but shifted this year to coincide with the start of the games.

"The park will be buzzing... Hamilton's going to kick it up and we are going to keep it up," said program director Lloyd Turner, keeping with the soccer-themed day.

World Music Festival

Gage Park park will host It's Your Festival on the opening weekend on July 9 to 12, while the following weekend will see World Music Festival take over the park grounds. That celebration will include three days of free music and arts, with a focus on music from Latin and Central America with groups from Cuba, Peru and Columbia, among others.

In the final weekend, when the Gold and Bronze medal games will be played at CIBC Hamilton Pan Am Soccer Stadium, Supercrawl Productions will put on a "Waterfront Pan Am Cultural Showcase." The two-day event will be a gathering spot to watch the end of the games on large video screens and see entertainment. The musical entertainment includes Canadian electronic group, A Tribe Called Red, who will perform on the Saturday, and Hamilton's Terra Lightfoot performing with Boris Brott and the National Academy Orchestra on Sunday.

With the games over, the orchestra will stick around to perform a live soundtrack to the fireworks display, one you can watch from what Supercrawl festival director Tim Potocic said would be a "massive 1,000 capacity beer garden."

Business areas involved

Individual BIAs are also getting into the action. The International Village will turn Ferguson Station into an International House viewing station with food and entertainment daily between July 14 and 24. The Ottawa Street BIA is rotating a host of food trucks from Hamilton and the Greater Toronto Area for an "International Food Court" throughout the games with at least six different trucks selling food each day.

Barton Street BIA, meanwhile, will have pop-up shop installation art, taking over empty store fronts along the street.

And the Downtown BIA is aiming to be the main focal point of the games.

"We are going to be celebration square in Gore Park," said Kathy Drewitt, executive director of the Downtown BIA, describing how Gore will have screens and a beer garden to watch the action.

Many of the fine details have yet to be released, with things such as a full vendor list of food trucks planned to be announced in two weeks. Whatever the details are, there is one thing that is already known: there's no entrance fee to any of the events, making it all free of charge.

"It's important so we can invite everybody to come out, we wanted to be as inclusive as possible," said Merlo. "There's something there for everybody."