The European Festival: A Great Day
for the Whole Family and Their Dog
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VOLUNTEERS at the Irish booth: Siobhan Airey, Deirdre O'Ruairc (IWN president), Claire Fox, George McDonnell (vice-president Irish Heritage Society), and Mary Schlote.
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VIOLET MOORE and her Irish dancers wowed the crowd at the European Festival.
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IWN Irish Woman of the Year, Eilis Courtney (R), with Hannah Cleary (L).
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ROBERT GOODRICK of P&G Sausage in the England booth holding one of his famous meat pies at the European Festival.
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By CATHOLINE BUTLER
BURNABY - Every year that I attend the European Festival in Burnaby I marvel at the detail and professionalism that goes into preparations to receive thousands of visitors to the grounds at the Scandinavian Cultural Centre. It also amazes me that despite huge crowds, how conscious everyone is of keeping the grounds clean.
Opening ceremonies at the European Festival is always very impressive with a member of each country on stage in traditional costume holding the flag of their country. This year, Eilis Courtney, the Irish Women's Network (IWN) Irish Woman of the Year was on stage to represent Ireland.
May 30 was a lovely summer day for the festival with flags and wafts of tempting food floating from the booths of every country in Europe. It was a great opportunity to taste and enjoy the traditional food of each European country without ever leaving Burnaby.
The large main stage featured continuous entertainment all day. Each country took to the stage wearing their colourful costumes to showcase the best music and dance of their country.
The Violet Moore Irish dancers were outstanding as they smartly took to the stage, dressed in their colourful costumes and performed the soft and hard shoes dance routines with energy and skill ... kudos to Violet Moore who has been teaching dancing for over 50 years in Vancouver!
Thanks to Geraldine Megannety of the Irish Women's Network (IWN) who was instrumental a few years ago in organizing a booth at the festival to represent Ireland.
I visited the Irish booth which was complete with a video showing the various counties of Ireland and its music. The attractive booth was manned and put together by the IWN...oh yes, there was one man among the women who helped with the set-up...George McDonnell, vice president of the Irish Heritage Society.
When you get this group together there's always an abundance of the 'auld craic'. The only thing missing from the booth was a pint of Guinness or a Murphy's - maybe next year one of these Irish companies will take the initiative to be represented at the Irish booth. Maybe even consider sponsoring the booth. Now that would be something!
The European Festival is a wonderful day for the whole family and their dog. In fact, many dogs were dressed in their family's country colours. Dublin-born, Marie Morris of the Celtic Society of Canada also brought along her wee dog 'Leary', short for Dún Laoghaire.
Keep the festival in mind for next year, it's always a great day.
For more information about the European festival and the Scandinavian Cultural Centre, visit: info@scandinaviancentre.org.
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