On June 17^th (Father’s day) I attended the CARe Free Festival on Denman Street. The festival was to encourage a sense of community that over the years has been increasingly lost by bringing back the fun atmosphere of block parties to various locations in Vancouver. It was also meant to encourage people to use green forms of transportation instead of driving, such as bikes, buses or walking. The West End Festival stretched out, taking up several blocks and blocking off Denman Street from cars throughout the whole day. I love when festivals block off the streets and you get to walk on them, especially when its sunny out.

I had a really nice time walking up and down the block looking at all the different booths, from food to games to arts and crafts. Everyone was in a great mood since it was supposed to rain but ended up being fairly warm with the sun peeking out.  My first stop was the arts and crafts booth (of course)!  I took advantage of all the chalk and had a great time adding some drawings to the already covered pavement. After some chalk fun my mom and I went for lunch at one of the patios set up on the festival street to enjoy the fresh air and warm day.

During lunch I noticed a booth blowing up balloons with a huge crowd and thought they could use some help. So after the bill was paid I headed over to the booth across from us and helped out with tying and giving out some balloons to kids. I’m going to be honest and say that I asked if they needed my help without thinking about the fact that i’m pretty horrible at tying balloons… but I think I managed well. It was nice seeing all the happy kids run off with a balloon in hand. Overall it was a lovely festival and it was nice enjoying it with my mom and having my dad meet us there after his important soccer game was done.

Hope everone else had a great Father’s Day too!

Till next time,

-Nadia Afshar