Lilac Festival

There is this Lilac Festival in Calgary that apparently has been going on for a long time. This year we decided to check it. So went to 4th St., SW around the area of 25th Ave. This neighbourhood is among the ones which was heavily damaged in the last June's flood. Many of the businesses were closed for months, including the local Shopper's Drug Mart, Earl's and few others. I guess it took almost 6 month to Shopper's to reopen. The others were not in much better. There was a small bakery which made Puffs. That one never re-opened. I guess there's another business in its place. 

Anyhow this years festival was a kind of help to the local business to try to get back on their feet and the crowd was amazing. I guess the majority of the benefits went to the restaurants and food truck and similar food providers because every where you would go, you saw people getting something down! 

There were also street dance and some music but of course all amateurs at low quality and even high school kids. Apart from a few, I did not see many people paying much attention to the musicians! The centre of focus was on food and then shopping! 

We did not try anything because there was not something special which caught our eyes but people were in lines for Doughnuts, Corn on the cob, Hot Dog and all kind of healthy food that you might not find any other time of the year. In fact it was the food truck heaven. There is this restaurant in the neighbourhood that we wanted to try last weekend and it was closed, an East Indian one, they had a small place for themselves at the side of the street in front of their place. There two men and one woman. The men were so scary that they reminded you of the Dark Ages headsman! No smile with dark and dirty cloths and gazing at you like you are the next one who's going to be executed! The woman did not look much better. They had samples of their food which were asking $2.5 for a tiny portion, probably the size of a small saucer! I just backed off and happily there were not many people going there either. I have read many stories of poor customer service of East Indians and experienced a few but this would have been probably the worst, had we gone to get something! Will I go again to the festival next year? Absolutely not, if everything is the same. 

(Photo: I bumped into this couple and I tried to get a photo. This girl apologized her because she thought she was blocking my camera but I told her that I was taking a photo of the guy in turban because I liked his outfit! The Sikh guy was a nice one, most probably one of the many who either were born here or came when he was a little kid but his brain apparently had stopped working years ago as he thought he was so special and unique! All of the Sikh Punjabi guys believe so! I wonder when they will claim their land here in Canada just like the way they did in India and called it Khalestan! The fact is they have a good chance here in Canada unlike in India. Here all they need is to grow their population, something that they are very good at and build a few more temples and then call for referendum. Over there the Indian Army will beat the shit of all of them like they did when they occupied the Golden Temple in Amritsar! 

I went too far and I will probably have to talk to these guys later but I asked the guy if this colour meant anything and I added that I knew Orange was their sacred colour. He denied but showed me another colour at the inner side of his cloths, some creamy yellow but I didn't hear what he was saying because we were close to a small group of singing girls that you can see them in the photo. When we went back home and I was transferring the photos to the computer I got the idea: His turban and robe-like dress was specially made for the festival because they were both Lilac!)