Travel around the world without leaving the city
Thousands expected to turn out for summer showcase of Calgary’s diversity
GlobalFest — one of Calgary ’s most spectacular festivals — is set to kick off Thursday, serving up a variety of new and favourite features for thousands of attendees.
For starters, there are the fireworks. The Trico Homes International Fireworks Festival will see four countries competing for top marks.
One of those countries, Ukraine, hasn’t been part of the festival before, notes spokeswoman Amber Rowden. And the expert teams from the other participating countries — Spain, Philippines and China — are also new to the festival.
The lake at Elliston Park always provides ideal reflection for the fireworks and for the first night of the event an added element could
provide an interesting effect, too. The smoke-filled skies could enhance the reflections of the colourful explosions.
In addition to the fireworks, GlobalFest has become a special event because of its ability to showcase the diversity of the city.
“Calgary is such a multicultural city and GlobalFest can bring the entire city together in one place to experience that,” said Rowden. “It’s like exploring the world without leaving Calgary.”
To that end, the Sunbelt Rentals OneWorld portion of the festival starts at 6 p.m. on each night. Features include a night market, vendors, food providers and two stages of multicultural entertainment.
Festival-goers can also visit more than 20 cultural pavilions and enter to win prizes by participating in a passport program.
After picking up their free passport, visitors pose questions from their passport to representatives at each pavilion, collecting answers and passport stamps. Passports are then entered into a prize draw.
A special GlobalFest event occurs on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., during which 100 people will become Canadian citizens.