lion dance

Thursday at The 2017 Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival – S12E14

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Live music, bagpipers and lion dancing kicked off the 2017 edition of The Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival on Thursday night.

Their concert series kicked off with The Elwins, Said The Whale and The Sheepdogs. All three were great and the best thing about the concert series at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival, it is free! Best of all, the music lineup are all Canadian.

Friday’s lineup will have Kalle Mattson, The Zolas and Dear Rouge. There is a lot of things to do in Ottawa with Summer in full swing.

Check out the photos below.

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Ottawa Ice Dragon Boat Festival – S12E10

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The first ever Ice Dragon Boat Festival in North America happened on Saturday morning. It was held at Dow’s Lake in Ottawa.

The unexpected mild temperature was pretty ideal to begin the opening ceremony. The lion dance troupe led the VIPs and politicians to the Rideau Canal Skateway. The Minister of Canadian Heritage, Melanie Joly and Minister of the Environment, Catherine McKenna were on hand for the event. As usual, the mayor of Ottawa, Jim Watson and other local politicans were there for the event.

Boats on ice don’t seem in common compared to the usual boats on the water. The Ice Dragon Boat race have been a big hit in Hungary and China so far. Teams from Canada, China, Europe and USA have applied for the first inaugural race in Ottawa. I didn’t get to stay to check the race as I was there for the lion dance performance.

There was a good turnout for the Ice Dragon Boat Festival as it’s part of the 2017 edition of Winterlude as one of the new attractions. It is also part of the continuing celebration for Canada’s 150th anniversary and Ottawa 2017.

Check out the photos from the opening ceremony below.

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Happy Chinese New Year 2017 – S12E08

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Happy Chinese New Year, Gung Hei Fat Choy. Happy Year of the Rooster for 2017.

Sunday was quite the day as my lion dance troupe had two performances. One was at T&T Supermarket and the other at Richcraft Recreation Complex in Kanata. There’s still some Chinese New Year celebrations happening throughout the city and around the world. It’s a yearly tradition to perform at T&T Supermarket and to go around the whole store. It was quite intensive for some of the members. 

The second event was in Kanata at the Richcraft Recreation Complex. It was Kanata 2017 – Celebrating Canada 150 and the Chinese New Year.
You can check the photos from the two events below.

There hasn’t been a lot of lion dance performance for Chinese/Lunar New Year this year. One major event left will be at the Ice Dragon Boat Festival on February 18th. It’s part of Winterlude and to celebrate Canada’s 150th.

It’s been awhile I haven’t take photos with the Polaroid camera and The Impossible Project films. I’m using the Polaroid Spectra and experimenting with the double exposure on the Impossible Spectra film for black & white. You will see the photos from below.

Totally apologies for the lack of updates on the blog. Ever since the transition to the new web hosting, some of the older posts didn’t make the migration. It will take awhile for the updates. Please bear with me as the blog will go with the slow transition.

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Friday at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival – S11E32

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ODBF Friday Main

Friday night at the Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival was crazy hot. I had to do a lot of running around because I decided to take some photos of The Beaches playing and then rush to my lion dance troupe for the opening ceremony. I definitely was in a sweaty mess.

I’ve been hearing good things about the Toronto female indie rock band, The Beaches. Their music is like glam rock meets new wave and just having a good time. It was a short time checking them out but they’re just wonderful. The band opened up Mia Rae and Mother Mother.

Onto the lion dance performance, it was different than the previous years because we were part of the parade of champions led by the RCAF Pipes and Drums. At least it was time efficient for us to start lion dancing right away than to wait for the speeches.

It was crazy and fun Friday night to be at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival. The concert lineup is the best there is with Canadian content and it’s totally free.

The photos are below and there’s a lot to look at.
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Saturday's Glow Fair and a Bit of Ottawa Asian Fest Night Market – S11E31

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Glow Fair Saturday Main-1

There were lots of events happening on Saturday in the Nation’s Capital. From Ottawa Explosion Weekend to UFC to Ottawa Asian Fest Night Market and Glow Fair, there’s not much to miss around with the fun and Summer around the close corner.

I first went to Ottawa Asian Fest Night Market at Lansdowne Park, as my lion dance troupe performed for the opening ceremony. With the hot weather, it was pretty tough to perform in the sun. Photos posted below.

Day 2 of Glow Fair’s concert had Gang Signs from Vancouver, Ottawa’s own The Balconies, Halifax’s Rich Aucoin and Toronto’s Dragonette. Each ranged from the rocking to the dancing beats. Aucoin was the best from Saturday’s lineup because of his interactivity to the crowd and bringing in total fun. The Balconies, who I haven’t seen in a long time had some new members, a change from when they were a trio. Dragonette brought the crowd to its feet as Glow Fair concluded the concert series.

I also took a few Impossible Project black & white instant film photos. Finally tried to B&W 2.0 600 film as it improved the development process but the first photo with Rich Aucoin didn’t turn out good because parts of it was white.

It was a weekend to not forget from the events happening in and around Ottawa.
You can check out the loads of photos below.

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Saturday’s Glow Fair and a Bit of Ottawa Asian Fest Night Market – S11E31

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Glow Fair Saturday Main-1

There were lots of events happening on Saturday in the Nation’s Capital. From Ottawa Explosion Weekend to UFC to Ottawa Asian Fest Night Market and Glow Fair, there’s not much to miss around with the fun and Summer around the close corner.

I first went to Ottawa Asian Fest Night Market at Lansdowne Park, as my lion dance troupe performed for the opening ceremony. With the hot weather, it was pretty tough to perform in the sun. Photos posted below.

Day 2 of Glow Fair’s concert had Gang Signs from Vancouver, Ottawa’s own The Balconies, Halifax’s Rich Aucoin and Toronto’s Dragonette. Each ranged from the rocking to the dancing beats. Aucoin was the best from Saturday’s lineup because of his interactivity to the crowd and bringing in total fun. The Balconies, who I haven’t seen in a long time had some new members, a change from when they were a trio. Dragonette brought the crowd to its feet as Glow Fair concluded the concert series.

I also took a few Impossible Project black & white instant film photos. Finally tried to B&W 2.0 600 film as it improved the development process but the first photo with Rich Aucoin didn’t turn out good because parts of it was white.

It was a weekend to not forget from the events happening in and around Ottawa.
You can check out the loads of photos below.

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Friday at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival – S10E33

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ODBF Main

After missing out on last year, it’s great to be back for Friday night’s opening ceremony of the Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival. The opening ceremony began with the bagpipers marching and leading the dragon boaters to the main tent. Following the speeches was the lion dance.

Prior to the lion dance, I had a chance to check out Kalle Mattson as they were one of the opening act for Hey Rosetta, the headliner for the Friday show. It was definitely a fine Friday night to be out anywhere in Ottawa.
I can’t wait to check out The Acorn, The Rural Alberta Advantage and Dan Mangan + Blacksmith at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival for Saturday evening.

As usual, you can check the photos over at Flickr by clicking HERE.

Happy Chinese New Year – The Year of the Sheep/Goat – S10E18

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CNY2015 Lions

Gong Hei Fat Choy! This year’s lunar new year celebrations is quite late. This year’s animal is quite confusing as it’s either year of the sheep or goat. I’ll leave it either way.

As usual, it’s great to go out and lion dance at various places. The first stop was at a public school and kids were excited to see the lions and take part in it. What was surprising that some of the kids knew their animal that they’re born in. I was able to take some photos from the event. Then my lion dance troupe did five other events and they were at a bank and several retirement homes. It was great to see some of the guys again for the performances.

You can check the photos over at Flickr by clicking HERE.

Posted below are a few silly photos during the performances. I got several lion dance performances to go. Have a Happy Chinese New Year!

Pssst, February 20th is my birthday!

Photos from the February 22nd lion dance at T&T Supermarket. Click HERE.

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Chinese New Year 2013: The Parade in Ottawa Chinatown – S08E26

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CNY Parade-3

It was a chilly but wonderful Saturday as the lions and dragon roamed through Ottawa Chinatown for the annual Chinese New Year parade. Also on hand were other drummers and twelve animals from the Chinese zodiac.
This year was unique as it was in conjunction with Winterlude/NCC.
For myself, I was on the cymbals and the tail of the lion. The photo shown had Ottawa mayor, Jim Watson giving the red pocket to the lions under the Chinatown Gateway. It was definitely the popular spot as crowds waited for the lions and dragon to come through the part of Chinatown.

Don’t forget to check some of the photos I took during the parade.
Here’s a short clip via Vine at this link.

Overall, the weather was great and fun watching families and their kids be happy for the occasion. I forgot to mention that the seventh day of Chinese New Year is everyone’s birthday.
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Chinese New Year 2013: Lion Dance at T&T – S08E24

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Lion Dance T&T Supermarket Feb 2013-9

Kung Hei Fat Choy!
What a way to start Chinese New Year for 2013 with a lion dance performance at T&T Supermarket, Ottawa location. Although, my lion dance troupe had done a few performances since Thursday leading up to Chinese New Year, it’s been exciting to see people be happy to watch the colourful lions.
It’s been wonderful having two small lions and three big lions for the big occasion.

The performance at T&T was pretty crazy as crowds were getting packed and we performed for about 30 mins around the supermarket. It was quite a frenzy for the guy dressed up as Cai Shen. He was giving out the red enveloped and lots of people were grabbing the red envelopes like hotcakes. That was quite a moment.

There’s one more big performance and it will be on Saturday (Feb. 16) for the New Year Lion Dance Parade.

Don’t forget to check the photos.
Last thing, I have been using Vine and here are a few lion dance related clips to check out.
http://vine.co/v/bvi7aUxUhlD
http://vine.co/v/bve0TJb1Z2X

Happy year of the snake!
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