On Saturday, we decided travelling the world in a day was a great goal. We spent our day celebrating Saskatoon Folkfest. I’ve been to Folkfest before but this was a brand new event for my son. I thought this was the year to introduce him to some new cultures. He loves learning about new places and is full of questions about new things. We didn’t hit all the countries in the world in one day, but we made it to as many as this amazing festival had to offer. He had a lot of fun exploring new places. On the way to our first stop, he asked if one of the worlds we were visiting would be Moose Jaw. It felt nice to show him some new cultures (not that we don’t love Moose Jaw.) We started at Prairieland when everything was opening. It had some of our favourite stops of the day.
Photo at 2022 Saskatoon Folkfest. India Pavilion.
Our first stop was the India Pavilion and Bangladesh Pavilion. We wandered around and listened to the music and speakers. We checked out the food and found a fun activity for my son and his aunt to do.
Photo by Erin McCrea.
It was my son’s first tattoo. As I watched him and my sister getting their tattoos, I definitely regretted my decision not to get one. They ended up being pretty cool. We made sure my son didn’t use his hand so he wouldn’t wipe it off for as long as we could. Ice Cream was the obvious way to go. He waited patiently and even though he washed it off before my sister, they both have pretty cool henna tattoos.
Photo by my sister.
Our next stop was the Pakistan Pavilion and the Philippines Pavilion. This was a cool one. They had games set out for us to learn and my son had a blast learning how to play. We were thankful for the hosts taking the time to help us learn.
Ukrainian-Karpaty Kid’s Section
Our next stop was the Ukrainian Karpaty Pavilion. It was a lot of fun. We wandered around and watched the dancing. They had a wonderful kid’s section. We both made headbands for ourselves and wore them for most of the day. (I was happy they allowed me to make one even though I’m only a kid at heart.) We loved checking out this Pavilion and we were even happier when they had a visit from the Scottish drum and pipe band.
Photo by Erin McCrea.
We decided to leave our cars parked at Prairieland and take advantage of the free bus service. This was really exciting for my son because he hasn’t needed to take a lot of buses in his life. The buses came every half hour and it usually worked out perfect for us.
Photo by Erin McCrea.
Our next stop was one I was really looking forward to. We stopped at the Indian & Métis Pavilion at the Saskatoon Indian Métis Friendship Centre. They had performances and booths with information. They also had delicious food. My son and I decided to try a bannock burger. I had trouble getting my picky boy to share with me. He loved it.
Photo by Erin McCrea.
Our next stop was a big one. It was slightly overwhelming but we were able to visit a lot of countries all in one place! The Cameroon Pavilion, the Japan Pavilion and the Nepal Pavilion. They were located at Belsher Place and there were many more countries for us to learn about. It was definitely an International Place. We had a quick tour and enjoyed exploring all the new places.
Photo by Erin McCrea.
Our last stop of the night was the Irish Pavilion at the Nutana Curling Club. We grabbed some delicious Irish food and sat down to enjoy the music and dancing. My son’s ONLY complaint about this amazing pavilion was the fact that I wouldn’t let him have one of the green jello shots we saw all over the place. He really liked the food we did get him. This was a good one to save until last. We enjoyed the performances and if I didn’t have to get a little boy home to bed, we could have stayed longer.
We took the bus back to our cars and headed home. It was a day well spent discovering new places and new cultures. We are looking forward to next year and plan to spend more time visiting each one. It’s a three day event so we hope to take a little in each day.
