The Manitoba Filipino Street Festival happens this weekend. Organizers were busy Friday night with some final touches before the official event gets underway Saturday.
A parade will begin at York Avenue and Memorial Boulevard at 9 a.m. and make its way down York, Carleton Street and Broadway.
Opening ceremonies take place at the Broadway and Memorial main stage at 11 a.m.
There will be food vendors and live entertainment throughout the day.
"They're gonna see lots of colourful decorated floats, decorated tents all over this area, there’ll be colourful dances and colourful costumes from different regions of the Philippines," said Aida Champagne, chair of the Manitoba Filipino Street Festival.
“Philippines is a country composed of about 7,700 islands. In every province, a fiesta is being celebrated in culmination of their wedding rituals, or healing, or harvest. In celebration of that, we hold a fiesta in a different culture,” she said.
Champagne said Winnipeg’s Filipino population comes from a diversity of regions within the country, and they’ll all be showcasing their regional culture during the festival.
The day-long event will close with a dance party from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. Broadway will be closed from Carlton to Osborne Street during the morning parade and from Kennedy Street to Osborne for the rest of the festival.
