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If you weren’t at the Surrey Fusion Festival this past weekend, you missed a fantastic party.

Surrey’s annual Fusion Festival showcases music, food and culture from around the world, all in a family-friendly atmosphere. Festival-goers enjoyed the warm Surrey scene and sunshine in Holland Park all day July 23 and 24.

[Mehndi henna art by Munira Mumtaz]

The festival was as Canadian as you could get with several dozen countries officially hosting tents and even more represented by the tens of thousands of attendees.

[Good thing the First Aid guy is watching carefully!]

ACTIVITIES

Whether watching on stage or participating directly, the Fusion Fest had lots of options to entertain. How about cooking demonstrations, mixed martial arts, speed badminton, turban tying lessons and robot cars for variety?

Kids stood in line for wall climbing, bouncy castles and to try standing up in wobbly floating bubbles in the kids zone. Local organizations such as Vancouver Aquarium, Parks Rec & Culture and Fly Over Canada had kiosks popular with attendees.

FOOD

Cuisines from Afghanistan to Zambia were all to be found here. I was impressed by both the variety of food on offer and with the availability of several vegetarian, gluten- and dairy-free options.

At Thailand’s tent, I found the red curry well balanced and the spring rolls piping hot. Germany’s pork hock with sauerkraut was very popular. The shavings of chicken shawarma from the Turkish tent were flavourful and served with smiles.

[Barbeque at the German tent]

The festival had lots of drink options too. Jamaica’s tent had refreshing fruit smoothies and Colombia’s fresh pineapple juice and pina coladas right from the pineapple — all made for happy festival-goers. A separate global beer and wine tasting section was well visited too.

[A milky bun from the India tent]

Dessert options were plentiful. I was on the hunt for something new and discovered the milky bun, served at India’s tent. A scoop of the ice cream of your choice is sandwiched between two halves of a Krispy Kreme doughnut. These layers of sweetness are then pressed with a hot waffle iron to warm up the doughnut while leaving the ice cream frozen. Unreal!

MUSIC

It’s difficult to find a festival that offers up the range of great musicians on the Fusion Festival’s lineup. Even more challenging is putting on a festival of this size with free admission. Surrey’s Fusion Festival delivered on both fronts with two full afternoons and evenings of free concerts.

[Good for Grapes]

The festival had four different music stages and this weekend’s acts included Alex Cuba, Good for Grapes, Jazzy B, Khari McClelland, Maxi Priest, Krystle Dos Santos and the Mekaal Hasan Band.

[Delhi 2 Dublin’s Sanjay Seran]

Headliners Delhi 2 Dublin closed out the show on Sunday night with a riotous set of their Celti-meets-Bollywood style music. It even featured performances by Vancity Bhangra dancers whose infectious smiles and high energy dance moves got the crowd cheering even louder.

[Delhi 2 Dublin’s Tarun Nayar]

[Violin dohl battle between Serena Eades and Ravi Binning]

The 2017 festival, the tenth annual, is sure to be an even bigger party. See you there?

Photos by Johanna Read, TravelEater.net.

About Our Contributor Johanna Read

Vancouver-based writer and photographer Johanna Read specializes in travel, food and unique experiences. She writes for several Canadian and international publications to promote destinations and responsible tourism. Follow her on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and read her travel stories at Travel Eater.