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“There was just so much support, and so much help on the ground from everyone. It was hard to stop that train once it got going,” Qasqas said.

The swell of support has turned into a wave of more volunteers than the pavilion can accommodate, said Qasqas. He said that according to festival policy, first-year countries don’t prepare food on-site, and instead stick to performance and arts programs in their tent.

Gibbons said in an interview Friday that the rule helps new groups get accustomed to having a pavilion, but that they can still sell food and drinks.

“We find that a lot of groups underestimate the requirements for doing the full pavilion, including food,” he said. He said they want groups doing their first pavilion to have a great experience — and to avoid burnout — so that they’re keen to come back the following year.

“Our goal would be to get everybody in if we could. We’re always trying to squeeze in more people,” Gibbons said in an interview Friday.

Gibbons said there are four new groups with inaugural pavilions in 2019 but said the identity of the other three will be revealed later.

For Qasqas, who has attended the festival annually since he was a child, the debut of a Palestine pavilion is meaningful.

“To be able to, this year, finally say ‘I have a tent for where I come from’ is really, really nice,” he said.

This year’s Heritage Festival will be held Aug. 3-5 in Hawrelak Park. This is the 46th year it has operated. Gibbons said the festival is the largest multicultural event of its kind in the world, according to the International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Arts, an arm of UNESCO with which the Heritage Festival has recently become affiliated.

pparsons@postmedia.com

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