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Sausage Fest will be reborn as International Food Festival

New event will feature same sausages, more food variety in 2015

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Previously: After 43 years as a fundraiser for St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and School, the Vancouver Sausage Fest came to an end on Sept. 7.

What’s new: Officials at the school and parish discussed several options for a new event to fill the void left by an event that, while popular, was ultimately in decline.

What’s next: The Vancouver International Food Festival will launch on Sept. 11-13, 2015, replacing the Sausage Fest.

Dry your fat-spattered eyes, sausage lovers.

The Vancouver Sausage Fest may be finished, but the event’s meat-loving legacy will live on.

Previously: After 43 years as a fundraiser for St. Joseph's Catholic Church and School, the Vancouver Sausage Fest came to an end on Sept. 7.

What's new: Officials at the school and parish discussed several options for a new event to fill the void left by an event that, while popular, was ultimately in decline.

What's next: The Vancouver International Food Festival will launch on Sept. 11-13, 2015, replacing the Sausage Fest.

Parishioners and parents from St. Joseph’s Catholic Church and School are building a new international festival to replace the 43-year-old Sausage Fest — and it will absolutely include the humble sausage, said Shelton Louie, a school parent and parishioner who’s leading the relaunch effort.

“The community side of it, and that three generations of the community have gone to the Sausage Fest, I just didn’t want to see it end,” Louie said. “Especially not with my little ones at the school.”

The Sausage Fest came to an end after a long period of decline and dwindling revenues. But many in the community who grew up with it were sad to see it go.

“It came down to the fact that (St. Joseph’s was) looking to sell off some of the equipment from the Sausage Fest, and we said ‘this is too big and important to just go away,” said Mitch Canton, who’s helping Louie spread the word about the new festival. “The school will be a big part of it. I think we’ll see they’re going to expand the festival even more.”

The new event will be called the Vancouver International Food Festival, and it will have booths that represent foods from a variety of cultures, including Asian, Italian, Mexican and German, Louie said.

“It will be a fundraiser for the school, much like the Sausage Fest, with all funds going to the kids,” Louie said. “We spent a lot of effort building a fun festival, but it wasn’t a good fundraiser. We want to make this a good fundraiser and a fun event.”

The group plans to keep what they consider the good parts of the Sausage Fest — including the rides and beer garden — but tweak them and add a larger array of entertainment and food options, Louie said.

“The beer garden was working well, but we may want to make it more upscale, maybe with some high end wines and microbrews,” Louie said. “The rides were also working. We want to keep those, but we want to add more. We’re talking about what else would work well.”

The new event will also court a wider array of people from Vancouver and Clark County, and be a broader community festival, he said.

The first Vancouver International Food Festival will run from Sept. 11-13, 2015. More information will be available soon at www.vancouverfoodfest.com.

“The Sausage Fest was fun, but the new International Food Fest will be a blast,” Canton said. “It’s going to be so much more entertaining, so much more fun and with so much more flavor.”

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