By Brian Yap
The 2011 CelticFest Vancouver, which lasted for four days starting from March 16-20 downtown on Granville St, was celebrated with free Celtic musical performances in the Village Market and the much-anticipated Parade of Shamrocks.
Starting at Drake at Howe and ending at Georgia at Granville, the parade featured Celtic pipers, violinists, sword-fighting, dancers and drummers in kilt and Irish dress.
At the village, there were stalls selling Irish handicrafts, as well as delicious fast food and Irish herbal tea, and there was interactive story-telling.

By Bianca and Vivian Pencz
The Sakura Days Japan Fair, an annual cultural fair held at Vancouver’s VanDusen Botanical Garden, served a higher agenda than usual this year: all proceeds were donated to the Japanese Red Cross for disaster relief, so it’s a good thing the fair proved as popular as ever. This is the result of our first time filming and editing video ever, let alone as a twin sister team. Fortunately, neither of us killed the other during the making of this video.