Folklarama

I didn't manage to get to Folklarama till the last night but we made it count. We toured 4 of that were in the southwest corner of the city starting with the Spirit of the Ukraine at Soul Sanctuary. 

I like that venue as it is really comfortable and laid out nicely to accommodate the crowd without feeling really crowded. The chairs are comfortable, the AC works well, and the bathrooms are nice, clean and well maintained. The pavilion has great food, spirited dances and amazing costumes. This one is one of the ones that will hook you into coming again and again and also raise your expectations if you haven't been to any of the others before!

The next one was Argentina at the Caboto Centre. The food was amazing! We loved the desserts from Dolce Bakery on Regent (but I have a sweet tooth so what can I say!) It was also a nice venue although felt a little packed in there. The dances were fun and the costumes were beautiful. It was a fun atmosphere. 

Then came Spain at St Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church. We were quite disappointed with how hot this one was despite it saying it was air conditioned (we knew it would be 30+C so picked only ones with AC). It was in the basement but they did have the food in the reception room so maybe the AC just couldn't keep up. They also oversold tickets so there was so many people standing and since we had chosen seats near the back we were surrounded by people standing. Being hot and cramped made it hard to enjoy the show. The ladies costumes were amazing and their dances were beautiful but I could only think about when would it be over so I could get outside. 

We ended the night at the St James Civic Centre at the Budapest-Hungaria pavilion. We shared a chimney cake with ice cream. My friends had one of the combos and ended up getting more of their cabbage rolls because they were so tasty. It wasn't as packed as the last 3 and was the last performance of the year. The dances were fun to watch, especially the bottle dance. 

I was so happy to have made it out to Folklarama. I didn't find doing 4 too much for one evening. We carpooled and didn't try to have more then 10 minute drive between any of the pavilions. We had bought our tickets online so we had priority entrance and wouldn't have to worry about dealing with a sell out. Because there was 4 of us seeing more then 3 we bought the 12 pack and then bought 4 more tickets. With the online fees that cost $94 (23.50 per person) and then we spent about $75 for 2 of us for drinks and food. I do wish that they would rethink having one ticket per full page to print out and maybe switch to a mobile ticket.

Did you make it out to any pavilions? Which ones and how did you like them?