Lilac Festival

Last weekend I went down to 4th street to check out the annual Lilac Festival since I had never gone to see it during the six years I have lived in Calgary! I must say that it didn't start out so well...have you ever tried to find parking down there on a regular day, let alone when most of the city has also decided to park down in that area. Initially, I was going to take the train, but to be honest I didn't get up early enough to figure out how to get from the train station to that area. I don't often use public transit in Calgary so am not very familiar. Anyway, so needless to say I drove around for probably close to 1.5 hours in search of a lone parking spot. I drove near and I drove far as I was willing to walk. But seriously I found nothing. So after this amount of time in my non-air conditioned car driving around packed streets I decided that I did not need to go to this festival after all and decided to head for home. That is precisely when I saw a car pull out of a spot and I slipped right in. And, it was on 7th street so only a few blocks away! I could hardly believe my eyes. In fact, I triple checked for signs which prohibited my parking there for I feared that I would return later to find my car towed away. But, nope, no signs!



So I walked around the festival for a couple of hours just checking out what was there. It was much like traditional outdoor markets that have crafts, clothes, food vendors and lots of great music. I couldn't believe how packed it was; I swear everyone in Calgary was there! It was nice, despite the shoulder to shoulder walking but I must say I saw very few lilacs! Here are a few pictures of the festival.