Thousands gather for Festival of Chariots in Halifax

Thousands of people gathered in Halifax Saturday for the Festival of Chariots.

The 5th annual event was hosted by ISKCON Halifax at Garrison Grounds and featured a parade through downtown.

“The parade itself is very symbolic of the ancient parade that happens in India,” said Shammy Sohal with ISKCON Halifax. “You participate by pulling the chariot. By doing this, it gives you a spiritual cleansing.”

When Festival of Chariots first began in Halifax, Sohal said a few hundred people turned up.

“We grew from 400 people and every year we had a trajectory from 2,000, 4,000, 6,000 and we’re expected to have 10,000 people here,” he said.

Sohal was born and raised in Toronto and moved his family to Halifax about six years ago.

“As we came here, we noticed there was a big influx of southeast Asia immigrants coming into the province and looking for ways to be part of the community,” said Sohal. “This festival that we host here is actually something that’s been taking place in Toronto for over 54 years now and it’s been happening for thousands of years in India.”

Bhaktimarga Swami, who is known as the ‘Walking Monk,’ was part of Saturday’s festivities.

“My role is to supervise, to bless the program,” he said. “It’s about community development, team building, a good spirit, free food, dance, drama, everyone coming together like a universal family.”

Sohal said it’s an event that welcomes all Nova Scotians.

“We want to embrace all communities and culture,” he said. “We provide free vegetarian feasts, we do some yoga meditation, mantra meditation as well. We have the actual performances, and we do as much as we can to make certain that the community’s engaged at the same time.”

Sohal said the Festival of Chariots is about “promoting goodness.”

“Goodness in the sense that we want to make certain that people find a way to form a community, make relationships and be part of something good,” he said. “There’s so much turmoil and turbulence in the world today, and we acknowledge it, we understand it happens, and there’s so many mistakes that have happened in the past, but the whole thing that we’re trying to do is look to see how we move forward.”

ISKCON, which stands for International Society For Krishna Consciousness, is a registered charity organization.

ISKCON Fredericton will host its Festival of Chariots on Aug. 16, 2026.

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