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Your guide to the 2018 Richmond World Festival

The third annual festival aims to celebrate Richmond’s cultural diversity.
Richmond World Festival culinary stage
The culinary stage at the Richmond World Festival features several cooking demonstrations this year. Attendees this year can see how to make Portuguese cuisine, Vietnamese/French fusion, pastries, Indian dishes, custom chocolates and more. Photo: Instagram / @richmondworldfest

The Richmond World Festival is bringing tons of food, music and cultural flair to Minoru Park on Friday and Saturday.

The free festival opens Friday at 4 p.m., and it could be wise to start with some food.

Head straight to the culinary stage to get a lesson on Portuguese and Angolian cuisine at 4:15. There’s a dinner-hour lesson after that, and more on Saturday evening. 

If eating is more your thing than cooking, head over to the food truck area. There are more than 50 of them on site, and we have a list of all of them in case you want to start planning what to eat now. 

Food in hand, check out one of the nine music stages around the park. New this year is Africa Zone, where you’ll hear everything from jazz to gospel choirs. 

Don’t miss Friday’s headliner Lights, an award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter who croons alternative pop tunes. She takes the stage at 8:45 p.m.

On Saturday, Canadian reggae-fusion band Magic! takes the headliner spot.

In between all that food and music, you can stimulate your mind at the Digital Carnival with a performance by Lisa Burke and Terrance Houle that reimagines the first encounters between European settlers and Indigenous peoples.

You can also see the Vancouver Cantonese Opera Society at the Bamboo Theatre.

One of the goals of the annual festival organized by the City of Richmond is to showcase Richmond’s cultural diversity. There are several cultural pavilions from around the world, where participants  share their culture and heritage.

If you’re coming with kids, the World Festival features fair favourites like balloon animals and face painting.