Prime minister greets excited guests in surprise appearance at Winnipeg Filipino Folklorama pavilion

Attendees at thePearl of the Orient Philippine pavilionwere joined by a special guest Monday night, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a brief appearance during the second day of a weeks-long multicultural festival in Winnipeg.

Ruth Provitina said she was one of the lucky few who knew the prime minister would be attending the pavilion, but worked hard not to let the cat out of the bag before he arrived to shake hands and take photos with members of the city's Filipino community and other attendees.

"We'relucky he chose to have his dinner here," she said. "He likes egg rolls!"

Maridol Madolora said she couldn't get over the amount of people who flooded into the halls of north Winnipeg's R. B. Russell Vocational School to greet Trudeau.

"He has so many fans here," she said of Trudeau's appearance, which lasted less than half an hour. "He's almost like a star or something, a movie star."

The prime minister, who did not speak with reporters, made his way through a sea of attendees at the event many of whom were shocked he showed up at the pavilion.

One of those people was Angelina Ovejas, who is from Toronto, but is on vacation in Winnipeg.

She said she came to watch her niece's children perform at the pavilion and ended up with much more than expected.

"It's unexplainable," she said. "We're all so excited."

Meanwhile, Eric Garcia said there had been some buzz about Trudeau possibly making an appearance, but said "you don'tbelieve anything until it happens."

"It was pretty crazy seeing someone famous come through our pavilion," he said. "It doesn't happen so often."

He said it was great to see the prime minister come out and support the Filipino community, if only for a few minutes.

Trudeau also spoke to several dozen people at anevent hosted by Black History Manitoba on Tuesday morning.He touted the government's Black Entrepreneurship Program, which helps people with financing and other business needs.

He saidmore work needs to be doneto reduce the barriers entrepreneurs face in accessing capital.

Later, Trudeaushook hands and posed for picturesata barbecue for health-care workers.

Both events were in Winnipeg South, a riding currently held by Liberal Terry Duguid, but whichhas swung Conservative in the past.

Trudeau's visit to Winnipeg comes ahead of a byelection in the city's Elmwood-Transcona riding next month to replaceNew Democrat Daniel Blaikie, who announcedearlier this year he was resigning the seat to jump to provincialpolitics.

The vote in that byelection will be held Sept. 16.

Folklorama which calls itself thelongest-running multicultural festival in the world kicked off Sunday as communitiesinthe city geared up to showcase the best their country has to offer. This year's edition of the festival runs until Aug. 17.

The festival also features 38 pavilions this time around.