THUNDER BAY – Darsh Hudka felt right at home at Sunday’s Festival of Colours.
A centuries-old tradition in India, Hudka said it’s great to see the tradition being carried on in Thunder Bay, celebrating unity and throwing worries to the wind.
“We may have different skin colours, but on this day we will forget about everything. We are all one in the same. Mixing up all of the colours on each other says we are all just equal,” Hudka said, joining hundreds of others at Marina Park, the traditional home to the Festival of Colours.
“All my friends are together and I like this environment very much. As you can see, all my friends are blasting colours and all the people are together. We believe in equality and we always like people together.”
Hudka added he’s also a fan of the food booths, a little taste of home along the shores of Lake Superior.
Young and old alike were on hand for the event, which last year shifted to the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition grounds due to COVID-19 restrictions.
On Sunday crowds were waiting in line to get in, a rainbow of colours clouding the sky every few minutes as a new group coated themselves in yellow, orange, green, red, purple and blue powder.
Eleven-year-old Madalyn Heikkinen was a first-timer at the Festival of Colours.
“I’ve never been to it before. This is my first time and I really wanted to try,” she said. “It’s really cool; the colours, the music the dancing, just everything.”
Her friend, Alexa Polowski, also 11, said it was a great way to spend a summer afternoon.
“I think it’s fun and something to do,” she said.
“It’s something everyone can do. I was here last year. It was fun and my friends came.”
Nine-year-old Sophia Polowski was also having a blast.
“You get to spend time with your family and you get to throw colours in their air.”
