The Calgary Lilac Festival

At the end of May, it finally gets warm enough in Calgary to hold an outdoor festival, so they have what they call the Lilac Festival. Even after attending the festival, I'm not quite sure what the purpose of the festival is, except to get everyone outside to enjoy the weather (finally!!) being warm! But, we decided to get outside and enjoy a beautiful day and check out the festival.

We got to the festival around lunch, so we found a food truck and got some good ole' Canadian poutine! It was a new restaurant that opened in the neighborhood and also had a food truck, and it was GOOD! Jeff and I are fans of poutine anyway, but it was delicious! I had the pulled pork poutine and Jeff got poutine with pulled pork and bacon. Both were obviously delicious. If you've never had poutine, get your behinds up to Canada and try some. It may just seem like fries, gravy and cheese, but Canadians can do it up right. 

The food truck where we purchased lunch.

Jeff ready to dig in.

Boone is jealous of that poutine.

How cute are these two?

After lunch we walked around and checked out the booths. There were all kinds of businesses, charities and artisans. It was all very random, but it was fun to check out. The only problem we ran into was that it was so so SO crowded. And if you don't believe me, they said the crowd count was around 100,000 people who attended the concert. Can you tell that people had a little bit of cabin fever in Calgary after a long winter?? What? We can go outside and enjoy sunshine?? We are there! All 100,000 of us! But, despite the crowds, we had fun and enjoyed checking out a fun local event.

You can't go to a festival without getting some kettle corn!

100,000 people crammed into this street to check out the festival.

Not to end this post on a sad note, but as I write about this festival over 2 months after it happened, much has changed in this area of Calgary. The area where the Lilac Festival took place was heavily damaged after the floods in Calgary. It is truly amazing to see everyone in Calgary come together to help those who were affected by the flood. We are proud to be (transplant) Calgarians! What a strong, proud city.

Signing off on Canada Day,

Emily, Jeff + Boone