International Food Festival ready to serve

When you’re rebranding and relaunching a beloved community food festival that famously went kaput, a fair amount of risk is involved.

“We don’t know who’s going to show up and who’s going to eat what,” said Shelton Louie. “But we want people to know the spirit of the fest lives on.”

Not only does it live on, he added — it’s grown and gone global. That’s why, despite the risk, Louie is feeling pretty confident about this weekend’s first Vancouver International Food Festival as it follows closely in the footsteps of the Vancouver Sausage Fest, which ended a meaty 43-year run last year.

It did so because its huge success and growth over the decades had started to sag, and managers of festival host and beneficiary St. Joseph Catholic School came to the conclusion that the annual sausage-centric party was a little, well, old school.

The world has turned, said Louie, and if you want to put on a truly people-pleasing food festival now, you need to catch up with our culinary cross-cultural times.

“Where are the Mexicans, where are the Asians?” is what he’d already been wondering in the last few years of the Sausage Fest, he said. “If we’re going to have a celebration, let’s include everybody. I thought that would play well.”

Some preliminary proof of success has already appeared in the pudding, he added, in the form of lots of new vendor enthusiasm. Since word went out that the Sausage Fest would become the International Food Festival, Louie has been approached by many professional foodies who are eager to offer their special handmade staples and sweets in styles hailing from Korea, Hawaii, Greece, Italy, Mexico and elsewhere.

“It’s just amazing how many people have already stepped up because they saw how much more this festival could be,” he said.

There will be no shortage of gluten-free, dairy-free and vegetarian options, Louie added. On the other hand, he added, classic German sausage will still get a superhero’s welcome — along with its faithful sidekick, the friendly meatball sub. What used to be the beer garden has now been rebranded the Irish Pub Garden, he said, but the core, fermented ingredient remains the same. So, if you’re determined to pretend that the Sausage Fest is still basically the Sausage Fest — well, that appears to be no problem.

Ditto the carnival, operated this year by Rainier Amusements. There’ll be rides for all ages and thrill levels, Louie said, from little kids to daring grown-ups. “I expect more upscale rides of a little better quality than before,” Louie said.

Entertainment, cars

International flavor also will extend to the free main stage entertainment, Louie said, with both traditional and modern music and dance from Polynesia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Ireland and elsewhere around the globe. Pub entertainment — which requires a cover charge — will also be diverse, including everything from jazz to rock ‘n’ roll to acoustic singer-songwriter fare. The Saturday night pub headliner is rock-and-blues act Five Guys Named Moe.

Earlier on Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., will be a car show. There will be voting for “Best in Show” as well as a “Father Gary’s Pick,” letting St. Joe’s long-standing leader, the Rev. Gary Lazzeroni, play his own wild card. Be one of the first 60 show cars to arrive and you’ll get a slot in the show and free admission to the whole festival, as well.

Admission, by the way, remains nominal. It’s $2 for general admission; Friday and Saturday nights in the pub cost more — $5 and $7, respectively — to cover the entertainment.

The whole rebranded festival will continue to benefit pre-K through eighth-grade education at St. Joseph Catholic School. A portion of the proceeds will also be donated to the St. Vincent de Paul Food Bank.

Louie is a pharmacist and businessman who’s quarterbacking this effort as a volunteer and a long-standing fan of St. Joe’s, he said; his wife’s grandparents helped found the place and his wife and the couple’s five children have all gone to school there. He’s enlisted parishioner and school parent Peggy DiPrima as overall event coordinator, parishioner Nicole Lagana as food director and school parent Carrie Wilhelm as inventory director.

“We’ve been there forever and the fest has been so important,” he said. “We didn’t want to see it die.”