The numerous events and festivals going around in the city in May reflect a lot of Calgary’s growing cultural diversification: there’s a festival celebrating Asian heritage, and Japanese pop culture takes centre stage at the U of C during the wildly popular Otafest. The Calgary International Children’s Festival is also a much-anticipated event of fun for all ages.

“You also get to learn more about the community and build the foundations for a stronger community with these events,” says Richard Gotfried, Vice President for Corporate Communications with Trico Homes, which sponsors several festivals and events throughout the year, including ImaginASIAN during the Asian Heritage month celebrations this May.

Fun is the underlying factor for the start of the festival season, no further proof is needed that in the beer fest (in May no less), and the raucous Lilac Festival in the Beltline area to cap it off. All these packed in an intense four-week party period.

Day Out With Thomas
May 8-9, May 15-16 | Heritage Park Historical Village
Every child dreams of driving a train and no train engine is friendlier than Thomas. The popular children’s TV show comes to Heritage Park where guests can get on a  20-minute ride with Thomas the Tank Engine, meet Sir Topham Hatt, and enjoy other family-friendly activities, including arts & crafts, storytelling, video viewing, live music, face painting, wagon rides, antique midway and much more!

Exclusive commemorative merchandise including a Day Out With Thomas passenger car, as well as a t-shirts, engineer caps, pennants, and more are available. For more information, visit http://www.heritagepark.ca.

Otafest
May 21 - 23 | University of Calgary
Otafest is an annual conference for anime and manga enthusiasts, that is the wildly popular form of Japanese animation and comics, respectively. It is an occasion where fans show their passion and creativity with their imaginative costumes — usually modeled after their favourite manga or anime character. Otafest isn’t just that, however, it also hosts panels on the Japanese language, and tips on how to use computer programs to enhance music videos and CG art. The festival is on its 12th year and has grown into a three-day affair where as many as 4,000 people attend. For more information, visit http://www.otafest.com.

Calgary International Children’s Festival
May 25 – 29 | EPCOR
Centre for the Performing Arts
The Calgary International Children’s Festival is one of North America’s largest performing arts festivals of its kind. Bringing professional live theatre, dance, music and more to Southern Alberta families, the Festival ­— presented by Qualico Communities — is held in Calgary’s esteemed EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts. The Festival is not only fun, but provides great entertainment with performances that appeal to people ages 2 to 102. The Festival boasts world-class performances from Brazil, West Africa, Scotland, Belgium, the U.S. and Canada. For more information, visit http://www.calgarychildfest.org.

Calgary International Beerfest
May 28 – 29 | Big Four Building – Stampede Park
Bottoms up for this amazing beer sampling festival. Patrons will enjoy sampling the amazing beers from local and international breweries, succulent food, incredible interactive entertainment, great live music and a lot more! Play games, learn about beers, meet people in what is fast becoming Calgary’s premiere beer tasting event.

All beers and  food can be sampled by purchasing Sample Tokens. Tokens are 50 cents a piece and sold in bundles of 10. Samples typically cost three sample tokens, but some imported beers may cost more. A sample of beer is legally 4oz, which is 1/3 of a bottle of beer. For more information, visit http://www.get-a-life.ca/calgarybeerfest.

Calgary Lilac Festival
May 30 | 4th St S.W. from 12th Ave. to Elbow Drive
It has been called Calgary’s favourite free festival and it’s easy to see why. Now on its 21st year, the Lilac Festival has become more popular than ever, and an estimate 125,000 people participated in the Mission district merriment last year. Revelers enjoyed live entertainmenton stages and entertainment zones along 4th Street, and had the opportunity to shop at over 600 craft, food and entertainment vendors along the 13-block corridor.

The Lilac Festival kicks of the day with a parade at 10 a.m. It starts at 25th Ave. along 4th Street to 13th Ave. Bring the kids down, there is no better way to enjoy an exciting Sunday morning in springtime!

Asian Heritage Month
May to June | Various locations
The ImaginASIAN film festival kicks off this year’s Asian Heritage Month celebrations with screenings of “One Crazy Ride” (India, 2009) and “The Leap Years” (Singapore, 2008) at the Plaza Theatre in Kensington starting on May 8.

It is just one part of the larger Asian Heritage Month celebrations that run from May to June. Other activities include a heritage bus tours that take groups to landmarks of Asian culture in the city, youth-centric events including theatre workshops and dance performances, a book and fundraising drive for public libraries, and numerous community hosted events from April to August.

The Glenbow Museum also has special Asian-themed programs for the month.

“Asian Heritage Month provides an opportunity for communities to work together to make cross-cultural connections and recognize the value of cultural diversity,” says Trico Homes’ Richard Gotfried. The multi-awarded homebuilder is one of the biggest sponsors of the month-long celebrations.