Founder Notes #2 - The Day at Swangard Stadium in 2017

In 2017, I attended a cultural event at Swangard Stadium.

That day, I was sitting in the grandstand looking out across the entire venue.

It’s a large outdoor stadium, with seating for about 4,500 people.

The stage, the running track, the grandstand —

the whole space was filled with people and energy.

At the time, I only had a very simple thought:

The people who are able to organize events in a place like this must be incredible.

Back then, I was simply someone sitting in the audience.

I never imagined that one day I would be standing on the other side of those stands.

And I certainly never imagined that one day

I would try to create a festival for this city in the very same place.

Looking back now, it feels interesting how things unfold.

Some ideas once felt very distant —

so distant that they never even crossed my mind.

But a few years later,

we really did bring the Canada Bubble Tea Festival to Swangard Stadium.

Sometimes I still think about that moment sitting in the grandstand.

If someone had told me back then that one day

I would be organizing an event here,

I probably wouldn’t have believed them.

But many stories begin exactly this way —

slowly, and almost unexpectedly.

———Eric Yang

Founder of the Canada Bubble Tea Festival