Maybe I'm just too fussy, but this year's Heritage Day Festival at Prince's Island Park was a huge disappointment. I seem to recall this event used to be a huge deal once upon a time. I have an idea...
Instead of having the event at one place, each ethnic community could establish a pavilion. This could be set up at a community hall, sports field, leisure centre, park - whatever. The pavilions would be scattered all over the city. Each pavilion could offer ethnic food, drink, music, dance, costumes, and displays. These pavilions would operate all weekend, giving us a chance to visit them one at a time. You could find your own way to each pavilion, or a shuttle could provide a ride along a circle route connecting all the pavilions together. Admission would be via a $20 pass, good for all pavilions, shuttle bus access and Calgary Transit too. Other cities have attempted this kind of cultural festival with great success, some with populations less than 125,000.
Here are some pavilions I envision for Calgary (there could be many more):
British; Franco; Deutsche; Carribean; East Indian; Spanish; First Nations; Chinese; Japanese; Italian; Greek; Ukrainian; Phillipino; Africa; the list could go on and on. Yes, I know some of these groups already have their own events, but wouldn't it be cool if they all got together on the same weekend?
Update
I have been informed that Calgary does indeed have a similar cultural festival (this will be its 2nd year - it's called GlobalFest. There are 17 pavillions and you need a $5 ticket per person for each of them. So for Darlene and I to go, that's 17 times 5 divided by the GST plus 2 weeks, carry the one - that's too much money! Seriously, a $30 passport would make so much more sense than $170. But I digress.
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