As many as 100 martial arts students along with seven guest instructors will converge on Mission at the end of April as the fifth annual BudoFest is set to take place.
From April 23-24, the Canadian Martial Arts Academy, located on North Railway Ave., will host a series of lessons and tests to students from across BC and beyond.
And once again organizers will be making a donation to the food bank in Mission as part of the two-day training event.
“We could have 30 students, we could have 130, its hard to tell,” said Shihan Christopher Ginter, of Mission Jujitsu and organizer of the yearly fundraiser.
He explained that as instructors come to the event, they often bring students with them and the numbers can fluctuate.
The two day event features training sessions and black belt testing.
“The students get to come down and train with different groups of people, get to meet people from different places and hit them,” said Ginter.
As in past events, everybody who comes is asked to bring a bag of food to be donated to the local food bank.
“It’s just the right thing to do,” said Ginter.
The event allows martial arts students to experience a high level of training in many different styles.
“We split up into four classes a day and we have guest instructors.”
One of the instructors is Sensei James Cockram who is flying in from England to participate in the event.
“He’s an important guy. He runs an organization that, I think just in the UK there is over 1,000 dojos,” said Ginter. “He was my instructor.”
Another guest instructor is Michael Sanchez, a retired merchant marine.
“He’s trained in Filipino martial arts his whole life so that’s sword, machete, the sticks, and he is coming to teach two classes for us.”
Other guest include former boxer Gordy Racette, Mike Caffrey, Henry Lagas and more.
Anyone interested in participating can call604-767-0427 or visit missionjujitsu.ca.