Day 4 of Folklorama - Belgium

 Winnipeg, MB

Waiting in line for the Belgium Festival at The Belgian Club.

Visiting A New Brewery

Today we visited a new brewery in Winnipeg.  We took a short walk to Devil May Care Brewing.  It was a very cool place with great beers, great staff, and cool décor.  

Get mustering everyone!

My Patio Crusher was pretty good.

Folklorama Belgium

Later in the evening we went to The Belgium Folklorama located at The Belgian Club of Winnipeg.  We liked having close seats last night so we went early and got in line before opening.  We were looking forward to Belgian Treats and Dancing.  As we entered there was a line for food and a walkway to walk around the corner to find seats.  We waited in line for the food because seating wasn't an issue at any other venue but this one was very small and by the time we got our food all of the non reserved seats were taken.  Donna found a place standing right in front of the state so she posted up there while I bought us beers.  After a few minutes that area started filling up with people that had no seats and the hosts began seating some of the reserved areas so Donna grabbed us seats right in front.

While all of this was going on I was waiting in excitedly for some Belgian Beers for each of us.  I decided to get a light beer listed on the menu and a Sour Red from the beer list.  I ordered a Belgian Slammer (ale) and a Duchesse De Bourgogne.  They pulled the Duchesse out of the fridge and put a cup on the bar.  I began to get nervous about my order.  I asked for the Belgian Slammer and they mentioned they were made to order.  Oh no, what have I done? Soon I had an orange juice drink in front of me.  I asked why it said The Belgian Slammer was an (ale) and she looked at the board and said, "Oh that says alc meaning it has alcohol in it."  Turns out I ordered a very traditional Orange Juice and Southern Comfort.  Oh well, you can't win them all.

Here is Donna content with finding a place to stand.

My Belgian Slammer :(

My Belgian Fries :) and my blood sausage and my chocolate mouse.  My food was great.

Donna got the pickled herring which was great but her soup and her rice pudding were on the other end of the scale sitting at not great.

Here is the list of all of the wonderful well priced beers I could have ordered.  Oh well.

Soon the show started.  It was narrated by an accordion playing man followed the format of history, dancing, history, dancing and so on.  We learned a bit about Belgium and then learned that most of the dancing they showed off were dances associated with doing chores.

This is the dance they did after harvesting shrimp using nets pulled by horses.

The kids danced a Smurf Dance celebrating the fact that The Smurfs were invented in Belgium.

This is the dance they did after working in the field.

This is the dance they do after collecting eggs.  The goal is to look good while not stepping on the eggs.

They stepped on an egg.  The yolk was on us though because there were no yolks in the eggs in case of disasters like this.

This is the dance they did while they were doing laundry.  Living in Belgium really seems like living in a Disney Movie with singing and dancing around every corner.  

This is the dance they do while milking "Cows".  

The "Cow" even danced a little bit.

It was fun but I don't think anyone here is going to win Canada's Got Talent.  

So far after all of the festivals we have made a bee line to the car to get home because we had seen it all but as the show was closing they mentioned an upstairs with exhibits and a downstairs with Belgian Bowling!  We had to see these.

Belgian Bowling was a bit like playing bocce ball but with a wheel of cheese instead of a ball.

After seeing the bowling we headed upstairs 

They were selling chocolate, Belgian Waffles,...

T shirts, I bought one of these, and...

Smurf 2 The Movie DVDs.  Not sure if these sold.

When we got out we noticed we had missed a rain storm.  We also noticed Miller pandering to Winnipeggers.  

It was a fun evening but not my favorite festival so far.  We still have 6 more to go to.  If you missed yesterday's festival post, Day 3 of Folklorama - Metis, check it out.