This year’s Feast on the Fraser will serve as an appetizer to an all-new regional festival in 2020.
After a one-year hiatus, Feast on the Fraser returns to New West (and beyond) this fall with a focus on Indigenous culinary traditions. Instead of being a dine-out type program, Feast on the Fraser aims to be a culinary celebration linking communities along the Fraser River through connections over food and shared geography.
“The name is the same, but this is a multi-city, regional cooperative effort to understand Indigenous culinary techniques and traditions,” said Judy Frankel, executive director of Tourism New Westminster.
Feast on the Fraser aligns with the city’s efforts to address reconciliation, but it will use food as the basis of starting conversations and creating connections, she said.
“We are not looking to lecture anybody or make it all formal. Food is so fun,” Frankel said. “It’s such an easy access point, such a delicious access point to learn about somebody else’s history, values and everything through food.”
This year’s Feast on the Fraser includes several events in New Westminster, Burnaby, Abbotsford and Langley, but an even bigger event is planned in 2020 when it will expand to include Richmond and Surrey. Tourism New Westminster has received a $100,000 Canadian Experiences grant from the federal government for 2020 and will partner with Indigenous Tourism of B.C. and tourism organizations in other communities.
“It’s not just the appetizer, it’s the amuse-bouche for an incredible lineup of programming for 2020,” Frankel said of this year’s event. “Really, it’s the idea of kind of appetizing or tempting people in our communities right now with the idea of what’s to come, and to kind of preheat the oven in terms of having an appetite to learn about this kind of information.”
Aside from bannock and salmon, many people don’t know a lot about Indigenous food, Frankel said, but that’s going to change as the re-imagined culinary event focuses on rediscovering the culinary traditions from communities alongside the Fraser River. This year’s festival, taking place from Nov. 5 to 10, includes events pairing food, fun, arts and entertainment.
“At River Market, from Nov. 5 to 10, we are going to have a lunch and learn, if you will – some sort of educational, Indigenous food demo taking place over the lunch hour so we can attract folks to have a lunch and learn,” Frankel said. “I am really excited about that.”
Other events include a traditional salmon barbecue in Fort Langley on Tuesday, Nov. 5. When the vinyl Analog Fair returns to River Market on Nov. 8, Another Beer Co. will be unveiling a special beer being brewed for Feast on the Fraser, and Vancouver’s first Indigenous food truck, Mr. Bannock, will be in attendance.
This year’s biggest event, taking place on Nov. 10 at Fraser River Discovery Centre, closes this year’s Feast on the Fraser and serves as the launch of next year’s expanded event. In addition to food, it will feature storytelling, dance and music.
“It’s an Iron Chef-style competition, a sort of battle between the Nations,” Frankel said. “We have different First Nations competing with each other. The public gets to participate by sampling and voting.”
To ensure Feast on the Fraser is respectful of First Nations’ traditions, Tourism New West is working closely with groups like Indigenous Tourism of B.C. and the New West-based Spirit of the Children Society.
“It’s not about trying to monetize either. One of the goals of the significant grant for 2020 is to make these events very low-cost, if not free, so we can bring in the most amount of people,” Frankel added. “It’s not about an elite, gourmet festival. It’s about how can we connect with one another and learn through one another through food.”
For more information, go to www.feastonthefraser.com.
