First Stratford Filipino Festival a celebration of cuisine, clothing and entertainment

Stratford Mayor Martin Ritsma with Filipino-Canadian Community in Perth-Huron officers.

The inaugural Stratford Filipino Festival had lots of tasty food to try and a positive energy amongst the attendees.

The Filipino-Canadian Community in Perth-Huron (FCC in PH) held the first-ever Stratford Filipino Festival at the Falstaff Family Centre on Aug. 23. Attendees had a chance to explore Filipino cuisine and clothing, as well as enjoy music and dance performances. Guests of all ages also tried out karaoke. 

"The culture that we have around celebration is something that we've always wanted to share with more and more people. We always have these kinds of celebrations, and we have it within our community,” said FCC in PH officer Meryl Ochoa. “We have it with people that have become integrated into our community, but this time we really want to share that widely with the Stratford community who has hosted us and have felt like home for so long for a lot of us."

Ochoa describes the close-knit relationship the Filipino community has with the city of Stratford as “Bayanihan,” which is Tagalog for a community that helps each other out.

"Whether that's something personal, something with your family and friends, something when someone's in need or just something to make a community or something in the community better. That's something we really feel within the small town but really expanding feeling of Stratford and that's what it's offered us this long,” she said.

Vendors part of the festival came across from southwestern Ontario, such as Kitchener’s Lola Liza, London’s Mommy Ai Boutique, Woodstock’s Mindanao Hub and Toronto’s Salu-Salo.

"It shows us that while Stratford has a lot to offer us, there's not a (lot of) businesses catered to the specific needs, Filipino food for example, or just culturally,” Ochoa said. “That's something that we all want to see progress in the future but in the meantime, we've built so many of these relationships by going to our neighbouring cities, to our neighbouring towns and finding those Filipino businesses, those stores that offer what we call a taste of home. Each vendor even represents a different group from the Philippines, so that really gives something for everybody … to reminisce about or to feel again like home.”