Beyond the Rhetoric

You know those people who use “No Fun City” to describe Vancouver? They’re just not taking advantage what this city has to offer. Just yesterday, there were no fewer than three different events going on in the city. There was the Mini Maker Faire for DIY enthusiasts, Greek Day on West Broadway, and Latincouver’s Carnaval del Sol along Granville Street downtown. I opted to attend the last of these three.

Easily one of the biggest reasons why I love this city is the sheer diversity that it offers in culture and in food. We have festivals for all sorts of different cultural backgrounds, but this is the first that I’ve attended that celebrates Latin America. It wasn’t specific to one country or another. Instead, they had booths and performances from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Cuba, Colombia, and all sorts of other wonderful places.

Organized by Latincouver, Carnaval del Sol is a summer festival with an open air food court, live performances, games for the kids, and more. Here are a few photos that I shot of the event, as well as a couple of videos. As always, you can click on any of the images to see higher-resolution versions on my Flickr photostream.

Yes, there was a soccer (futbol/football) street tournament too. They use this mini-soccer balls and, while I wasn’t there to watch any of the games, I’m told that Mayor Gregor Robertson and the Vancouver WhiteCaps FC got involved at one point.

I couldn’t resist. I love churros, but this is the first time that I had a chocolate-filled one.

The “Fair Trade Banana” was an odd figure, but there were several booths not necessarily related to Latin American culture. I saw Dog Taxi, Oasis fruit juice, and Bles-Wold Dairy, for instance.

       

All in all, I had a good time at Carnaval del Sol. There’s a good mix of culture there and the “street festival” vibe certainly makes for a lot of fun. I just wish there was more food and more lower-priced food. One booth was selling meals for $18! That’s hardly the idea for an open air food court.

Tags: festival, latin america, vancouver

Filed under Arts and Entertainment.