International Villages festival makes successful return in Brantford

The president of the Brantford International Villages Festival was tired but happy on Sunday morning.

“It was wonderful,” Pat Eyzenga said of the four-day festival, which ended on Saturday night. “I’m so happy, so, so, happy.

“It was wonderful.”

Eyzenga said all of the villages attracted large crowds.

“It reminded me of previous years, when all of the halls were full,” Eyzenga said.

The festival began July 5 and included a Chinese, Hungarian, India, Italian, Muslim, New York-New York, Philippine, Polish Polonaise, Polish Warzawa and Ukrainian villages. It was the first villages festival in three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I was really worried, a little bit scared (for the) event,” Eyzenga said. “It had been so long since we had a festival and we really wondered if we’d be able to get enough villages to participate.

“Then we worried about having enough volunteers and whether people would come out.”

Organizers were able to get enough villages to participate and it turns out, people were eager to visit the various halls.

“After two years of being cooped up inside, I think people really wanted to get out and enjoy themselves,” Eyzenga said. “I visited all of the villages and there were lots of people out having a good time.”

Getting enough volunteers however, continues to be a challenge.

“We need more and we’re really hoping that we’ll be able to get more volunteers for next year’s festival,” Eyzenga said. “I give a lot of credit for the success of this year’s festival to the village chairs.

“They did anything and everything including working in the kitchen to make sure people had a good time.”

Eyzenga said she won’t know how many people attended the villages until she hears from the village chairs.

But she’s already feeling pretty good about next year’s festival.

“We’ve heard from some of the villages who wanted to be open this year but just couldn’t get enough volunteers to make it happen,” Eyzenga said. “They want to come back next year so we’ll have to see what we can do to get more volunteers.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to get more volunteers and more villages.”

Meanwhile, Eyzenga plans to take a day or two off after an extremely busy four days of making sure the festival ran smoothly.

“People have already told me ‘Pat, we need to do this again next year,’ so I guess we’re going for it,” Eyzenga said.

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