Gung Haggis Fat Choy 2004 Dinner
Arrive Early: The doors will open at
5:30pm. We expect a rush just prior to the posted 6:00pm reception
time. This is the time to go to the bar and get your dram of
Glenfiddich or pint of McEwan's Lager – specially ordered for tonight's
dinner.
Buy Your Raffle Tickets: We have some great door
and raffle prizes lined up. Lots of books (being the writers we
be), gift certificates and theatre tickets. Most exciting are the
tickets for opening night of Terracotta Warriors at the Centre in
Vancouver for Performing Arts, opening night tickets for The Plum Tree
– directed by Adrienne Wong (who will also co-host GHFC).
This dinner is the primary fundraising event for
both the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop and the Gung Haggis Dragon
Boat Team. We have assembled some wonderful prizes, to help raise funds
to support our missions of supporting and developing emerging writers,
organizing reading events, and to spread multiculturalism through
dragon boat racing.
The first appetizer dish will appear once people
are seated, quickly followed by the Piping in of the musicians and
hosts. We will lead a singalong of Scotland the Brave and give
good welcome to our guests. I will read my new opening poem Gung
Haggis Fat Choy.
From then on… a new dish will appear every 15 minutes –
quickly followed by one of our co-hosts introducing a poet or musical
performer. I don't want to give anything away right now as I
prefer the evening to unfold with a sense of surprise and
wonderment. But let it do be known that we have an incredible
array of talent for each of our two nights. This includes
bagpiper Joe McDonald with his fusion band Brave Waves and Qiu Xia
He and Andre Thibault from Silk Road Music – both of these groups
appear in the CBC tv special.
Co-hosts with me for Saturday evening are Adrienne
Wong and Margaret Gallagher. For Sunday, we have Adrienne and
Heather Pawsey. On Saturday, 13 year old violinist Alex Sachs
performs, followed later by Vancouver Opera concert master Mark Ferris
– who will debut original compositions. On Sunday soprano Heather
Pawsey will perform her favorite scottish songs, along with a song or
two in Mandarin.
On both nights we have award winning teen-aged
Highland Dancers Vincent and Cameron Collins, as well a Burns
afficianado Neil Gray, who is also featured in the CBC tv performance
special.
Our non-traditional reading of the “Address to the
Haggis” is always a crowd pleaser. I hand-pick members of the
audience to join us on stage to read a verse. Past participants
have included former federal Secretary of State Raymond Chow, Qayqayt
(New Westminster) First Nations Chief Rhonda Larrabee, UBC
Director of the Chan Centre Dr. Sid Katz.
The evening will wrap up somewhere between 9:30 and
10:00pm. People will leave with smiles on their faces and say to
each other, “Only in Canada, could something like this happen.”