Cheese Rolling Festival

Cheese Rolling Festival

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.

If your family is wondering where to travel for vacation this summer, don’t consider the usual tourist attractions ... try something different.

A unique Canadian festival in its fifth year is promoting both cheese and plenty of family fun at the Cheese Rolling Festival in Whistler, British Columbia.

Dairy Farmers of Canada Public Relations Program Manager Sandra Da Silva shares more details.

Da Silva: “The Cheese Rolling Festival is taking place on August 18th. We have these wonderful festival of activities, we have a cheese marketing where we feature a number of great Canadian cheese from across the country -- from coast to coast. We have a lot of great activities for kids, so this really is a family event. We have our cheese rolling races where we throw down the hill an 11-pound Canadian wheel of cheese. We have some wonderful, enthusiastic, excited participants that run down that hill chasing after the cheese ... Everybody comes out for the love of cheese.”

Da Silva says each year the festival attendance is increasing.

Da Silva: “Every year we continue to have more and more who participate in the actual races. We have more and more folks that come out with their kids and their families to come watch the event, to actually participate at the cheese market and all the other kids’ activities. Last year we had over 12,000 spectators at the event.”

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.