Surrey Fusion Festival 2011: It’s On

The skies broke open and showered the Lower Mainland with rain this morning and while that stopped the Whitecaps from playing their game at Empire Field, out in Surrey the Fusion Festival was a go.

Each year dozens of pavilions line Holland Park and the tents – filled with cultural displays, merchandise, music, and food – serve as shade from the sun. On a day like today, the tents were used as shelter but many braved the elements with nothing but Gore-Tex, a hat, or an umbrella.

The rain stopped every now and then giving a nice reprieve and the sun has been playing hide-and-seek all day. Luckily, there isn’t too much mud on the grass (it’s draining fairly well, I would say) and people are still coming out to experience this free annual festival filled with activities for all ages.

Leading up to the evening’s concerts, Warren Dean Flandez is on at 6:30pm tonight, Bombino at 7:30pm, Dirty Radio is on the celebration stage at 7:30pm as well, and Bedouin Soundclash will round out the evening starting at 8:45pm.

Tomorrow, explore the all-new (this year) Flavours of Surrey area that has even more food and local artisans along with the cooking demo stage. Top Chef Canada winner Dale MacKay will be on at 5:30pm and today, Vikram Vij drew the morning’s largest crowd.

Jay Sean will close out the entire festival starting at 9:00pm Sunday night on the main stage. There’s still time to check out tonight’s line-up at Holland Park in Surrey and don’t shy away from coming out tomorrow if the weather stays the same. There’s no shortage of food and pavilions to browse.

Tips:

We hope to see you at Fusion Festival tonight or throughout the day tomorrow. Miss604.com is proud to sponsor this event for the 4th year in a row.

Update The evening concerts drew crowds who danced through the intermittent rain.

Kytami

Warren Dean Flandez

Bombino

Dirty Radio

Bedouin Soundclash

Update July 17, 2011 John and I are heading back to Surrey today for another round at the pavilions (I’m set on having jollof rice from Ghana, cannoli from Italy, and chorizo tacos from Mexico) and great music. We’ll have more photos and updates from this FREE community festival posted throughout the day.

All photos in this post are by John Bollwitt and can be found on Flickr.