It’s festival time!

Calgary is known for its long and cold winters which Calgarians await and stoically endure, and then reward themselves with a rich, festival-filled summer. From May to September, Calgary glows in multicolour while natives, newcomers, tourists, and accidental visitors exchange their cultures in the greatest way possible: through song and dance and a good bite to eat.  

The Serbian community in Calgary is not very big, but it is very active. Under the wing of the church-school congregation of St. Simeon Mirotočivi, there is a Serbian language school for children and a Circle of Serbian Sisters, and from the very beginning the church-school congregation has been the main patron of Serbian Fest.

Shoulder to shoulder with the Greek and Latino festivals, Afrikadey!, and GlobalFest stands the two-day Serbian festival, known to Calgarians as Serbian Fest. Already for the sixth year in a row, during the Victoria Day long weekend in May, all the Serbian organizations in Calgary come together and warmly and welcomingly host all people of good will, and present their cultural heritage in the best way. A stage and festival tents find their place on the vast church property, which sees a large number of visitors every year in spite of it being located outside of the city.  Besides song and dance, and excellent traditional cuisine, grilled specialities and delicious homemade desserts, Serbian Fest in Calgary is an event that offers its guests a chance to learn something about Serbian history and its greatest sons and daughters: every year, in the rooms St. Simeon Mirotočivi Serbian Orthodox Church where the festival takes place, there is a Heritage Pavilion open for visitors.

Within the community in Calgary, there is also the cultural-artistic society Frula whose dancers perform for various events not only in Calgary and Canada, but also represent Serbian dance and song in festivals in the U.S. The members of Frula are also the main organizers of the cultural and artistic program of Serbian Fest. They always strive to show the visitors Serbian dance and song in the best light, but they are also the proud hosts of the cultural-artistic societies of other cultures that for years have enjoyed performing at the Serbian festival. Over the course of two days—the duration of the festival—besides the performances of Frula, visitors enjoy the performances of Hungarian, Slovakian, Bulgarian, Scottish, Greek, and many other dance groups.

The Ravnogorski pokret from Calgary is active and organizes historical lectures on various themes throughout the year. As a humanitarian organization, Krajsko veče donates all proceeds collected from its parties and get-togethers to charity organizations, and works to establish ties with other Serbian humanitarian organizations. The members of both of these organizations actively participate in the organization of the Serbian festival.

In recent times, the Calgary Tesla Society is also alive and well, and works on preserving and promoting the work and inventions of Nikola Tesla. The society is currently working on erecting a statue of Tesla, which is a replica of the statue by the famous sculptor Terry Guyer located in Silicon Valley, California. If this project is successfully carried out, some future visitors of the Serbian festival and Calgary will be able to add Tesla’s statue—to be located in front of the Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Calgary—to their “must-see” list.