General Information for Open House Registrations

A Complete Open House Application includes the following:

  1. All Membership Information has been updated and submitted, on-line

  2. Full payment of Membership Fees for January 1 to December 31, 2026, completed and payment, on-line

  3. All Clubs and Members agree to and to implement all details of the Anti-Racisim and Discrimination Policy, Rights, Responsibilities and Expectations as listed in the Membership Registration and the Open House Registration sections

  4. Full Open House Listing info, completed and payment, on-line


Applications are not considered complete until all of the above items have been submitted.

All completed Open House Applications will be accepted on a first come first serve basis. Full payment for each Open House listing is required for your Application to be accepted. The fees are $450 for your first Open House and $200 for each subsequent Open House listing. Without full payment or only a partially filled in form, your Application is incomplete and your Application cannot be submitted. This could result in your preferred Open House date given away to the next request that fulfills all the requirements. Payments are to be made on-line ONLY.

Clubs must be in Good Standing to apply for an Open House Registration, which means:

  1. All annual Membership Fees must be paid at the time of your Open House Registration. Annual Fees are due each year on January 1, and will be valid for the entire calendar year- January 1 to December 31. This payment will also allow your Club to vote at the Annual AGM, held in September/October.

  2. All Membership contact information is up to date

  3. All Members must agree to and implement the Anti-Racism and Discrimination Policy

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Applications and Payments are to be completed on-line only. Applicants can make changes to their Applications up to February 16, 2026. DO NOT DROP OFF OR MAIL APPLICATIONS/PAYMENTS TO 85 CHURCH STREET-THEY WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

What you submit for your Open House details will be what is printed. Stating “use the same as last year” or something similar is not helpful, as we must go by exactly what is written in each application. Consider reinventing your overall listing info as to what you previously used. NO HANDWRITTEN REGISTRATION FORMS-ELECTRONIC COPY AND PASTE IS NEEDED TO AVOID LISTINGS TYPOS

Open Houses are responsible for obtaining their own Special Occasion Permits. Open Houses that require a SOP do not need a Letter of Municipal Significance from the city their Open House will be occurring in.

Open House organizers will provide an On-Site Contact at your Open House to help us all keep information easily available. This person will need to be on-site at your Open House and will be the key person that all dignitaries, Ambassadors and the Ambassador Co-ordinator will RSVP to, and will be sought out at your Open House, to check in and receive directions.

Post event information regarding your volunteer facilitation, your event attendee numbers, general attendee origins and general revenues for your Festival Open House is required. The statistics are used for Sponsor, Partner and Grant applications and will be kept confidential. A valid survey with full and accurate information included, is required to be a Member in Good Standing and failure to complete the Survey by June 15 of each year, may result in your Club not being in compliance (please refer to the Provision of Data under Expectations of Ethno-Cultural Club Members), and sanctions may be imposed, up to, and including, rescinding membership.

All weekends in May 2026 are available to have Open Houses.

Please retain a copy of this Registration form for your records.

Open House Registration Fee:
$450 for your first Open House listing
$200 for each subsequent Open House listing

By signing this document, the Open House Contact agrees:

  • to be the conduit for information between the Festival Office and the Open House organizing group/Club

  • to be responsible for transmitting accurate information to and from both parties

  • to be responsible for informing their members of planning progress

  • that they have read, understand and will comply with the details of the program as listed here

  • that they have the authority to speak on behalf of and make changes for their Open House

  • that they will be on-site at the event(s) or will clearly designate an alternate. Trying to convey months of planning information in a few minutes to someone who was not part of the planing process, is unfair and frustrating to everyone.

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Signature:
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Printed Name of Person Signing Registration Form
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Festival Office Information

Organization Name:
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Open House Contact Name #1:
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Open House Contact Name #2:
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Open House Contact Mailing Address:
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City:
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Postal Code:
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Contact Phone#:
Invalid phonenumber!
Invalid phonenumber!
Alternate Phone#:
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Invalid phonenumber!
Contact #1 Email:
Mandatory and address MUST be monitored frequently
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Contact #2 Email:
Mandatory and address MUST be monitored frequently
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On-Site at Open House Contact Name:
Invalid phonenumber!
Invalid phonenumber!
On-Site at Open House Contact email:
Mandatory and address MUST be monitored frequently
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On-Site at Open House Contact Cell Phone #:
Mandatory and MUST be monitored frequently
Invalid phonenumber!
Invalid phonenumber!

What will appear in marketing and advertising items:

Organization Name:
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Venue Name:
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Venue Address:
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City:
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Postal Code:
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Phone number for Public Inquiries:
(Mandatory and MUST be monitored)
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Invalid phonenumber!
Days and times phone messages are checked:
(i.e. Monday to Thursday, 9am to Noon)
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Public Inquiries Email:
Mandatory and MUST be monitored frequently. Gmail preferred. Personal Email Addresses are not recommended.
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Days and times emails are checked:
(i.e. Mondays and Wednesdays only)
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Open House details for our first/only Open House:

Date:
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Start Time:
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End Time:
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Open House details for our second Open House:

Date:
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Start Time:
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End Time:
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What will appear in marketing and advertising items:

Note that all venues must be Wheelchair Accessible.

Website Address:
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Facebook link:
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Twitter link:
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Instagram link:
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YouTube link:
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Other Social Media links:
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QR Code:
Include a QR code if you wish. QR codes allow the user to go directly to your website, Social Media etc, without having to type in an address.
Upload your QR code...
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Open House Description:


  1. What you submit for your Open House details will be what is printed. Stating "use the same as last year" or similar is not helpful as text must be copied from the 2026 submissions only.

  2. Consider reinventing your overall listing info as to what you previously have used, to re-fresh your invitation.

  3. Please add as much information as you wish here. Since most of our advertising and marketing is digital, we have lots of space to effectively use and include a lot of information, which can be electronically tagged by search engines, resulting in reaching new and unidentified attendee members.

  4. The Festival will also be creating a limited number of hard copy marketing items, which are much more expensive to produce and therefore have much less space available for listings.

  5. The Festival reserves the right to edit all Open House Descriptions as needed regarding spacing, costs etc.

  6. Please make the deadline of Feb 16, 2026 for your Open House description. It's not fair to your fellow Open House organizers, the Festival Staff and the marketing partners employed to create the marketing pieces, to try and 'squeeze' in a late entry for the hard copy items. In fact, in the past, late info has been excluded for hard copy creations, for the simple fact that there is no more room to add items or printing deadlines are past.

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Type your Open House Description here:
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When best to schedule Dignitaries & Ambassadors to visit your Open House(s)

Name of Club/Open House:
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Email for On-Site Contact:
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Name of On-Site Contact:
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Cell# for On-Site Contact:
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Invalid phonenumber!

The best time for our FIRST/ONLY Open House to have Dignitaries and Ambassadors visit is:

Date:
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Time Availability Start
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Time Availability End
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or: Time Availability Start
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Time Availability End
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The best time for our SECOND Open House to have Dignitaries and Ambassadors visit is:

Date:
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Time Availability Start
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Time Availability End
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or: Time Availability Start
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Time Availability End
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The Festival Office sends invitations which includes a full itinerary of all programming, to all Niagara Federal, Provincial, Regional and Municipal political members and contacts in the media. Invited politicians are directed to RSVP directly to the On-Site Contact, not the Festival Office. Of course, Clubs may invite whomever they wish to their Open House program, on their own.

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