People can get a taste of French Canadian culture when L’association des francophones de Nanaimo hosts the Maple Sugar Festival later this month.
The festival takes place Feb. 24-26 at Beban Park social centre and Vicky Prévost, an event organizer, said among the new attractions this year are lessons on how maple syrup is made.
Artist Aaron Grant will be back creating ice sculptures outdoors, and École des Cascades in Duncan will demonstrate syrup processing. There will be a marketplace and entertainment, including LGS (formerly known as Le Groupe Swing), and numerous local artists. There will also be a book fair and an area for children which will include face painting and a button-making workshop hosted by Work B.C.
“Then there will be the food, of course, you can’t forget the food,” said Prévost. “The toffee on the snow … traditional French cultural fare and all that. We’ll have some tourtières, [poutine], sugar pies, baked beans in molasses and maple syrup.”
Julie Cloutier, the association’s president, said the event is an opportunity to both celebrate and promote French Canadian culture.
“We have a French Canadian community, but it’s spread out everywhere and it’s a way to also make us [visible] and … share that culture with everyone,” she said.
Beban social centre hold the festival Feb. 24 from 5-10 p.m., Feb. 25 from 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and Feb. 26 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Volunteers are needed and anyone interested is asked to e-mail afn@francophonenanaimo.org.
For more information, visit www.francophonenanaimo.org/en.
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