Surrey Fusion Festival 2010: Day One
byUpdated July 18th, 2010: Yesterday John and I attended the opening day of the 3rd annual Fusion Festival at Holland Park in Surrey.
Once again it was packed with pavilions (offering food selections from over 30 countries) and four stages (one more than previous years) featuring performers from across the globe.
After the welcoming ceremonies, there was a parade of nations around the grounds. Surrey Mayor Diane Watts led the group and Mark Donnelly (known for belting out the anthem at Canucks games) was the flag-bearer for Canada.
From the expanded Taiwan tent with plenty of free samples, to the well-deserved line-up for Jamaican smoothies (because they’re a must-have) the 2010 Fusion Festival did not disappoint.
For making food purchases you need to get tickets. 1 ticket = $1. Most pavilions have items starting at two or three tickets however I made a list of what I can get for one: Butter scones (South Africa), Water (Portugal), Samosa (Kenya), Mandazi (Kenyan donut), Pop (Poland), Pop (China), Fruit Punch (Sri Lanka). For about three tickets you can get everything from tacos to dim sum.
We also took in concerts from We Are the City and Brasstronaut.
Being a free festival including activities, performances, concerts and more, it’s definitely worth caching in a couple bucks for some tickets to try out some of the many delicacies that are being offered. All food pavilions are operated by local business, either from Surrey or around Metro Vancouver. Another addition this year is a second food tent, where you can seek shelter from the sun at a table in the shade.
Every 20 feet there is a new aroma in the air and different crafts, products, and displays. Learn about medieval Poland then hop over to decorate a flag in Canada. Be a part of the aboriginal friendship circle, then head to Ecuador to browse a collection of sweaters and dresses.
We’re heading back to the Fusion Festival today and once again, I highly recommend that you check it out.
It’s completely free to attend and easy to get to by SkyTrain (located between Central City and King George stations). The music continues today with the final show of the evening at 7:30pm with the Grapes of Wrath and be sure to load up on sunscreen.
All photos in this post are by John Bollwitt. Check out his full set from the Surrey Fusion Festival on Flickr.
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Some great food gems as usual at this nifty festival. It was packed with happy crowds, great diverse turn-out for this year, it seemed bigger. Some of the food was too overpriced, the Indonesians were price-gouging with 2 tablespoons of noodles and 2 thin chicken skewers for $5. However happily a lot of tents offered some great food at good prices. South Africa had some spiced and bbq chicken with interesting flavors. The Sri Lankan tent had yummy generous portions that were all homecooked tasting as well as some smaller interesting snack foods. Best of all there was a nepal tent! The pork dumplings with a chili sauce were great, as well as the flavourful potato salad with lentil patty. As always every year I love the salmon from the First Nations tent. In the form of mini-sliders with dill sauce on top these were fantastic. The Korean tent with a miniplate of beef bulgogi, rice and kimchi for $3 was good too. I wish more of the other vendors adapted this small plate format while having more than a few bites it wasn’t too much food so you could sample more! Kenya offered a fresh tomato salad $1 with delicious samosas for $1. These went together well. Portugal’s tent were selling out donuts like no tomorrow, their marinated pork loin sandwich was delicious. The russian tent had good hearty foods, I loved their desserts, especially the cakes. I highly recommend this festival for foodies and take a few people along so you can sample more items! So many of the other tents looked great but didn’t get a chance to try everything, we were definately spoiled for choice. The Jamaican smoothie juice tent is good, but I think they were so busy because the weather was so warm and not many people were offering drinks aside from pop or water.
Proud to live in Surrey, a city that celebrates the different cultures that come together, MORE power!ENOUGH with Surrey Bashing…