What to expect at the Gung Haggis Fat Choy 2006 Dinner

Arrive Early:  The doors will open by 5:15 pm. All seating is reserved, and all tables are placed in the order that they were ordered (except for special circumstances such as a major sponsor hint hint).  We find this is the most fair, and it encourages people to buy their tickets earlier to ensure a table closer to the stage.  We expect a rush just prior to the posted 5:30pm 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.  Ohhh.... but we might be having a special sponsor for drinks.  Well working on it.

The premium tables will have two bottles of wine on each table.  This is the reward for purchasing tables closer to the stage and paying $10 more each.  This also means that you don't have to stand in line for your first drink.

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 + other surprises.  The best book prize will be BC Almanac's Greatest British Columbians.  And one of the Greatest British Columbians will be one of our special performers... Joy Kogawa!

Please buy raffle tickets... this is how we generate our fundraising.  We purposely keep our admission costs low to $50 for advance regular seats so that they are affordable and the dinner can be attended by more people.  Children's tickets are subsidized so that we can include them in the audience and be an inclusive family for the evening.

This dinner is the primary fundraising event for both the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop, publishers of RicePaper Magazine and the Gung Haggis Fat Choy Dragon Boat Team. Please support our missions of supporting and developing emerging writers, organizing reading events, and to spread multiculturalism through dragon boat racing - or come join our teams!

The Save Kogawa House committee was added as a beneficiary for the event, because I feel it is important to save Joy Kogawa's childhood home from demolition.  I have been working on the committee, and I am pleased that The Land Conservancy has stepped in to partner with us and help lead the campaign to turn Kogawa House
into a National literary landmark and treasure for all Canadians.

The first appetizer dish will appear once people are seated, and after the Piping in of the musicians and hosts.  We will lead a singalong of Scotland the Brave and give good welcome to our guests, only then will the first appetizers  appear.  You want to eat, you have to sing for your supper!

From then on... a new dish will appear every 10 to 15 minutes - quickly followed by one of our co-hosts introducing a poet or musical performer.  Serving 60 tables within 5 minutes, might not work completely, so please be patient.  We will encourage our guests and especially the waiters to be quiet while the performers on stage. Then for the 5 minute intermissions, everybody can talk and make noise before they have to be quiet for the performers again.

This year's dinner show will emphasize the show over the dinner.  In past years, we have always tried to alternate food dishes with performances.  But with the high quality of artists, we need to highlight them... so this year... the show takes priority!

Expect the unexpected: 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 the evening 

This includes the incredible children's entertainers Rick Scott and his buddy Harry Wong.  I have seen them perform together at the Vancouver International Children's Festival, and I have also seen Rick perform solo and with his legendary folk trio Pied Pumkin.

The harmonies and energy of The Shirleys will astound you.  I have seen them twice so far... and each time my thoughts were.... "I want them at Gung Haggis!"

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 Multicultural Minister Raymond Chow, Qayqayt (New Westminster) First Nations Chief Rhonda Larrabee, UBC Director of the Chan Centre Dr. Sid Katz, a descendent of Robert the Bruce, a doctor from White Horse, a UBC student from Scotland, somebody doing a vocal impression of Sean Connery.

Who will it be for 2006?  We leave it up until the evening to decide.

The evening will wrap up somewhere between 9:00 and 9:30 pm, then we will socialize further until 10pm.  People will leave with smiles on their faces and say to each other, "Very Canadian,"  "Only in Vancouver could something like this happen," or "I'm telling my friends."