Refugees invited to festival
Organizers of this weekend’s Shelter Valley Folk Festival offering free admission to Syrian refugees
GRAFTON - The Shelter Valley Folk Festival has invited Syrian refugees to attend and participate in the annual festival for free.
This includes overnight camping, if they wish, festival spokesperson David Sheffield said in an interview.
“It includes whatever they would like to do,” he said.
The festival, which takes place on the Henkel Family Lavender Farm east of Grafton, offers live musical entertainment and runs from this Friday to Sunday. It also includes prepared food from locally grown and raised producers; artist and artisan booths; green environmental and health wellness information and practitioners and special kids programming, as well as camping through the weekend on site.
It is an opportunity for community members and the Syrian refugees to come together over the course of the weekend rather than just a quick nod while passing in the street, Sheffield said. The festival is about creating space for community so it was natural to reach out to folks new to the community to participate, he added.
Invitations have been sent through Syrian refugee sponsoring groups in the area.
Port Hope resident Sayed Sharifi, who came here from Afghanistan 27 years ago and is a practising Muslim who speaks Arabic, will host the Syrian guests at the festival, Sheffield continued. He will be able to be a cultural interpreter helping to make them feel welcome and showing them everything from where to eat, to where to pray, he said.
PORT HOPE -- Sept. 23 has been set as the air date for Port Hope’s Olympus Burger to appear on an episode of the Food Network Canada show
hosted by John Catucci in a segment that was filmed in June.
“Oh my God, this is so soon!” said owner Giorgos Kallonakis.
Now he’s looking forward to seeing his establishment featured on a national network.
“We are so excited, and can’t wait to see how the final episode is going to look,” he said this week.
Viewers can expect interviews with Giorgos and scenes of the show’s star trying three of his signature dishes — the Build Your Own Burger, the Athena and the Titan.
Catucci seemed to especially like the Titan, with its toppings of Montreal smoked meat, caramelized onions, honey Dijon mustard, sliced dill pickles and lettuce.
The episode airs at 8 p.m. Sept. 23 on the Food Network.