The Labour Day weekend has just passed and for many of us, that signals summer’s end. Though summery weather around these parts (barring early torrential rains) seems to last into October some years, September usually marks the end of community celebrations and summer programs.
With that in mind, I decided to stop by the last day of one of my neighbourhood’s most popular events this summer – The Waldorf Hotel‘s Food Cart Festival, which has been taking over their parking lot every Sunday since the end of July. I took a few photos there and indulged in a double-decker cone from Earnest Ice Cream – their salted caramel was perfect and the strawberry-basil made me want to run home and roast some strawberries right away to recapture the flavour. But I digress…
The Food Truck Festival is a great example of the zeitgeist in Vancouver these day – a nice selection of local food (in those trendy trucks); pedestrian and bike friendly; a neighbourhood event that attracts folks from all over the city. Along with VIVA Vancouver and the community celebrations funded by Neighbourhood Small Grants, Vancouver’s summer street scene is becoming a lot more vibrant.
Speaking of Neighbourhood Small Grants, a group of neighbours planted this herb garden I passed today. I thought it was a lovely concept.
So tell me, does your community promote street-level interaction? What are the community events that define summer for you?
One Wet Foot 
Great photos, I feel like I was there!
Manly beach has the food and wine festival every year and other events (mostly beach types) that you’ve made me realise I take for granted!
Thanks, Sanya! I had a little fun playing with the afternoon shadows.
Our food and wine festivals seem to take place mostly in the winter here, but there are a few farm-to-table events that happen in the summer. I’m trying to take community events less for granted, though there are always things I manage to miss.
The strawberry-basil ice cream sounds intriguing. What a nice way to spend the labor day weekend. Some of the farmer’s markets in town are true destinations for many on the weekends around here, the Corrales grower’s market being our favorite. We love them and go whenever we can. They are a nice way to connect with others, offering music and local foods. The food trucks are a big hit in the downtown area, mainly for the lunch crowd.
This food truck festival was a nice experiment. They’re generally only downtown, here, too. The hotel is in walking distance of several residential neighbourhoods, so it was a treat being able to see so many of the popular trucks close by.
We live near the park where the Trout Lake Farmers’ market is held it’s the first of the Farmers’ markets in Vancouver (at least in their current incarnation) and it’s my favourite. Farmers’ markets are a little cultural touchstone, areh’t they? We always see folks we know from various parts of our lives and there’s always something going on alongside the market, too.