This year, I had the pleasure of volunteering at GlobalFest, Calgary’s annual fireworks festival. This was my first year at the festival and I can say that this is a must-do for Calgarians during the summer. GlobalFest is a fireworks festival first and foremost, but 
it is also a celebration of Calgary’s diverse collection of cultures. The five countries featured this year were Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, France and Canada. Each day, fireworks told a different story about one of those countries, from the invasion of Vietnam to a beautiful love story about trans-Atlantic lovers from Paris and Calgary. This year the festival ran on August 14, 1
6, 19, 21 23 from 6 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. with the fireworks show officially starting at 9 p.m. Most people start to file into Elliston Park at around 7 p.m. to claim a spot around lake to watch the fireworks. What confused me was the fact
that many people did not seem to know or care about the “global” aspect of the festival. After setting up camp, the proceeded to promptly sit down on their towel and took out their phones to, I’m assuming, madly tweet and post statuses about how exciting GlobalFest is. When they did get up, it was to go get food from the various food trucks around the park. Not only does GlobalFest feature fireworks it is also a cultural gathering with pavilions from countries all around the world. If you ever attend GlobalFest, I strongly encourage you to just wander around the park and visit as many of the 19 pavilions as you can. My personal favorites were the Scottish and Spanish tents.
As a volunteer, I was stationed at the Children’s Village. This was a tent and play area set up specifically for younger kids to enjoy themselves. The tent was a hub for craft-making while the play area consisted of bouncy houses from Shaker’s. As I have no artistic skill whatsoever, I was mainly outside manning the houses. Though my opinion might be biased, as I have only volunteered at the Children’s village, I think that this position was one of the more engaging and 
exciting ones available. On the first night I was there, August 16 (Thailand), we started to receive a steady stream of children, along with some rather exasperated parents, starting around 7:30 p.m. By 8:30 p.m., we had a constant line of around 30 kids. One of the things that I personally think volunteers should do a lot more is interact with the participants of the events. If you are doing something similar to my job, take the initiative and talk to the kids, it often helps them loosen up and not be so nervous about going to play. It’s also always amusing to see kids really start to open up and ramble. While I was there, I had two kids attempt to vie for my attention by listing various activities and accomplishments they had achieved. At one point, the girl told me that she does gymnastics and has won several medals. The boy looked at the girl, seemed to consider his options, then promptly responded: “Well, I can do a cartwheel.” He stared pointedly at the girl as if that ended the discussion and let out a satisfied “hmph” before crawling into the bouncy house. At around 8:45 p.m. everyday, we would close dow
n the village so the volunteers could go and watch the fireworks show.
I really don’t think that my description nor my photos do the fireworks any justice, as they are something that really must be experienced live and in person. Each firework is fired to be in time with the music being played and perfectly fits in with the theme. Sparkling waterfalls, fizzling crackles, flashing strobes, smiley faces and stars fill the night sky with a medley of colors that come together to paint a mesmerizing picture on the black canvas of th
e perfectly dark night sky. I would highly recommend visiting each of the five days, as each show is completely different. If you do want a five-day all-inclusive pass make sure to buy it online around December when you can get it for about $25. Even if you don’t plan to attend all five days, I still recommend getting this pass as a regular single-day admission is $20 in August. You can order advance tickets here. I know that I will definitely be there again next year as both a participant and volunteer, and I encourage you to do the same.
