MARCHFEST: On Saturday was Marchfest, again at Founders Park, the venue that is only 5 minutes from me. I'm afraid I once again have no pictures (I hardly ever think about taking any these days) so I will have to try to create one with words. Founders is a heritage village so picture a wee town of the 1800s built around a central grassy area, where the events take place. Marchfest is a beerfest, or as they call it, the Festival of Ferment. But for those not so fond of beer there was also wine, and cider. Of course it was also about food and music. Things got underway about noon and ended just before 10 pm, with fireworks. Even though this was an event built around booze I saw no evidence at all of any rowdiness. This event, like so many others here, was very kid friendly. There was an area devoted to keeping the wee folk entertained, so it felt very much like a family affair. With every type of ethnic food you could possibly want. The music was a bit too loud and raucous for me, but clearly people there loved it; most of them were up and dancing. Kiwis are a dancing lot!
Marchfest is a celebration of craft beer, which is as big here as at home. Fourteen breweries took part, each offering one of their beers. I had a taster of the two dark beers, both good. But there was a little of everything.
RACE UNITY DAY: Sunday I happened quite by chance on Race Unity Day, sponsored by the Nelson Multi-cultural Council and held in a park on the other side of the city. There was a line-up of entertainment, and food, from around the world. If you can blow up this picture, you'll get an idea of how many ethnic groups were represented.
Apparently one in four people in this area was born overseas. You need only listen to the voices of the people on the streets to get a sense of that. Of course many are tourists, but the number of different accents and languages you hear is most impressive. This might be New Zealand, and far removed from the rest of the world, but there is something/someone here from pretty much everywhere, or so it seems.
FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL: One example of this is the French Film Festival, which travels to different major centres in New Zealand,and just yesterday finished a 10 day run in Nelson. It included over 30 films. I saw three (couldn't bring myself to spend more time inside). My favourite was the only (french) Canadian film on offer, My Internship in Canada. A riot. And it had just been shown in Wolfville at Fundy Film! A satire, but it felt all too real. See it if you can, and haven't!
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