BRING MONEY: Heritage Festival running hot and heavy all weekend
The Servus Heritage Festival, Edmonton’s most delicious festival, is going hot and heavy at Hawrelak Park all weekend – and judging from the madding crowds on opening day Saturday, this could be a record breaker. Attendees are advised to bring:
– More money than you think you need, which is converted into “Heritage Euros,” better known as “food tickets.” Prices are comparably inflated. An ice cream going for $4 at the Fringe is six H-Euros at Heritage, while various grilled meats on various sticks immersed into various spicy oils average seven Heritage Bucks apiece, with fruity drinks with umbrellas in them about five. Add noodles, mango-on-a-stick (fruit also tastes better on a stick) and before you know it, you’ve blown $100. Plus ETS park ‘n’ ride will run you $24 for a family of four. Eighty different kinds of free live entertainment while you eat? Priceless.
– Tupperware, which can be used to store leftovers. If the kids say yuk, pack it up. No baklava until you’ve eaten your qabuli pala, young lady! Tip: The mild sausage at the Italian booth can pass for a plain hotdog with nothing on it if the kid is hungry enough.
Right: Meat tastes better when it’s on a stick, evident at the Congolese pavilion, and dozens of others.
Right: Scandinavian pavilion demonstrates the pride of once being the plundering scourge of the high seas, now charging five Heritage Bucks for a Lefse Dog.
Right: Jehovah’s Witnesses are never turned away, as long as they have food tickets.
Right: What little sausages are made of.
Right: The Chinese presence is powerfully felt this year.
Right: Rendering of some of the countries represented, in the early stage.
Right: Don’t forget Tums.
