Latin Summer Fest 2009

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In the last month or so, I have been blogging the different festivals in Vancouver and more often than not, I post about it on Sunday. However, this one is slightly different. In previous posts, the festivals were two day (or more) festivities and I usually attend the first day. However, Latin Summer Fest, which is the celebration of the Latin American countries, always take place on a Sunday – this year, August 16. So, in a way, this post is a week late… ^_^;;;

Now, unlike my previous visits to festivals, I asked Ms. H to join me and along was also Drea of TBDFBTI. While waiting for them (I arrived “early”), I went around Trout Lake (the festivities take place in the parking lot of the community centre there) and looked around. So, enjoy this photo essay of the Latin Summer Fest 2009!

Edit: Kevin of 604 Foodtography also blogged about this event! Check it here.

I swear this exactly the same banner used last year, except they “changed” the date.

As in most festivals, you have your usual tents with merchandise.

That poster on the bottom left is NOT of Nacho Libre but Vancouver Latin American Film Festival

In the main stage, there were several presentations, here, a band. Sorry, did not remember the name of the band playing…

And in this case, a one women show….

Which included some tango.

And talking about dances, in between, they played some music and encouraged spectators to join them in the dancing “floor”.

More or less about this time, Ms. H and Drea arrived and, time for food! However, some queues were really long… And what goodies were available?

How about some churros? I took this picture from the very beginning but, unfortunately, by the time we wanted to get some, they were all gone!

One of the stands selling Mexican food. My bias against most Mexican food is well known so I won’t add anything else here, other than the fact the queue was mid size.

This is from the Portuguese stand. Yes, Portuguese as in Portugal rather than Brazilian. Don’t ask… The goodies here is called malasada, which resemble a frybread but sweet instead of savoury. The one at the bottom looked like a brûlée

Patties from the Jamaican stand. The Jamaican stand also had wraps and some slushies/drinks. Ms. H and Drea got some drinks here.

The making of the most popular item sold during the festivities: pupusas. In fact, the long lines from the picture above is from the two stands selling these!

Grilled chicken from the Cuban stand. I wanted to order these but there were other items I was interested in…

Yuca con encurtido, a pickled-like coleslaw. Now, there is an epic fail associated with this dish…

This is the first “dish” we got: pupusas revuletas (?), i.e., pupusas with beans/cheese filling.

I also ordered platanos, i.e., fried plantain chips. Here is where the epic fail occurred: The menu had it listed as platanos y yuca con chicharrón: $5. However, they meant these were different dishes, whereas I interpreted it as one. So, I only got the plantain, not the yuca and chicharrón. Argh!

Meat empanada from the Chilean stand – Empanada Hut, anyboyd?.

As well as some cheese empanadas from the same stand.

We got some other stuff, like the malasada mentioned above and some popsicles. Afterwards, we walked around the “beach” area of the lake and enjoy the sun. Ms. H, Drea, thanks for coming. As usual, good company make things better!

Oh, to finish this post, some pictures I took around Trout Lake before I went to the festival. Enjoy!

Tagged under: Events • Festivities • Latin America • Vancouver