Monday, April 03, 2006

Emerald Multicultural Festival

This Saturday we attended the 2nd annual Emerald Multicultural Festival. The event started at 4pm and we stayed right until it ended at 11pm. There were about 10 different food stalls serving dinner and dessert from many countries including Peru, New Zealand, Thailand, Bangledesh, Japan, China, England and Australia. Brendon, Michelle, Charles and myself all bought something different so we could try different foods. Bren and I loved the Pad Thai and honey chicken, and the japanese dumplings. There were performances all evening on the main stage. Here are some pictures of the performances:

Here is an aboriginal Australian playing the didgeridoo.

Aboriginal Australians performing a story dance.


Drummers from Kenya and Ghana (that now live in Brisbane and flew to Emerald for the day).

A Hawaiin dance.

Trying out some international beer (from the Czech and Japan).

Another Didge player.


Fire spinning during the Island Breeze performance (from the islands of the pacific).

There was a competition for the best traditional dress from your country and each participant of the competition came up on stage to show their costume. The last group of kids were dressed up as Canadians!!! One kid was dressed in a Toronto Maple Leaf jersey, the other in an Edmonton Oilers jersey and the last kid was wearing a lumber jacket and beaver fur hat. We were so proud and got our pictures taken with the three kids (but they didn't turn out).

The weather has turned hot again (it had cooled off a bit over the last few weeks but the temp. is back up at 30-35 C). It will be nice to get some cooler weather soon! The countdown is on...we leave Emerald in one week.