THUNDER BAY — The Lakehead Japanese Cultural Association will kick off its third annual Summer Matsuri Festival in Westfort on Saturday.
The cultural festival, set for the West Thunder Community Centre on Edward Street from 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., will feature Asian food and goods for purchase, cultural performances, a car show and more.
“We started this three years ago… with the intention of wanting to share Japanese-Canadian culture with the people of Thunder Bay and (the) surrounding area,” said Laura Sutton, one of the festival’s steering committee members.
Sutton explained that they’ve invited different vendors to come and sell goods, some food and participate in a celebration of all Asian cultures.
She said they really just wanted to get their information about their culture out there.
“Japanese-Canadians here in Thunder Bay, we’re kind of a small group, but it’s a really interesting and unique culture that we’d like to sort of share a little bit more about,” Sutton said.
“Everybody knows about sushi now, but there’s just so many other parts of what we do that we wanted to be able to share with everybody else, like our drummers or dancers and some of the martial arts that are actually just here in town anyways.”
Alongside the vendors, Sutton explained that they have an entertainment schedule which will feature their Kaminari Wan Taiko drummers and Fuji Dancers performing the Odori, which are two of their cultural displays for “everybody to come and experience.”
This year, she said, they’ve also invited back their different martial arts displays and have a new cosplay contest happening.
Excitingly, Sutton continued, they also just added a karaoke hour to the end of their entertainment schedule.
“The end of the evening, after all of our other displays and events and activities are on, we then have an hour of karaoke happening in what we are calling gifu, which is the main gym at the West Thunder Community Centre,” Sutton said.
All in all, she said they just want anybody to come out, so they encourage visitors to bring their families and come with children.
“We have everything available for them to do between food, watching different activities (and) participating,” Sutton said.
“Some of our dancers have the opportunity to join in with some of the dancing. There’s also an interactive martial arts activity happening. We have a kid zone, so if you have young children, they can come and check out some of the Japanese kids’ activities that we’ll have available as well.”
She added that there’s just something for everybody, so if visitors are not too sure, “just come out and check it out.”
The festival is free to attend. Visitors are recommended to bring cash and shopping bags if possible.
