For the 3rd year in a row, the Lebanese Canadian Society of BC (WLCU Vancouver Chapter) hosted the LEBANON pavilion at the Fusion Festival in Surrey, BC on July 18/19, 2015.
The Lebanon food tent was full of popular food/drinks (date maa’moul, Anise muffins (sfouf), Baklawa, beef and spinach pies (maajanat), lemonade and of course, Lebanese coffee). The weekend was a great success with thousands of individuals at the event visiting the tent…some were repeat visitors from previous years who were excited to get some sweets and coffee!
Many visited the Lebanon cultural tent which had historic videos of Lebanon that included videos of regional food preparation as well as various musical instruments. In addition to the videos, there was facepainting and backgammon.
To showcase some of the culture, the youth led the Dabke (traditional Lebanese folkloric dance) in front of the tents and it was great to see passers-by joining in and learning the steps.
It was a very hot weekend, so why not cool things down by initiating a friendly
competition by drinking water the traditional Lebanese way….out of a “breek/bree2”? Keeping with tradition, the competitors got to use a clay “bree2”. It might seem easy but it certainly was a fun challenge for most.
There was a great crowd drawn in to the sounds of the Lebanese music playing while belly dancer Ashley took the stage for her excellent exotic show. It definitely was a crowd pleaser.
Part of the festival is the parade of the countries. It was a very proud moment to see Lebanon part of that parade with our youth dressed in traditional Lebanese clothing walking with great pride.
A huge THANK YOU goes out to all the volunteers who made it possible for the weekend to be a success. This year there was an abundance in volunteers. It was a great turnout and the spirit of the Lebanese community could be felt…and with everyone’s help, it was a very successful year.
A special thank you also goes out to Haida Lebanon “The village of tradition” for providing Lebanon hats as well as Arabesque productions for the video montages and photography.