CLEVELAND — This year, the Cleveland Asian Festival celebrates its 15th year, and the festival’s co-founders say there will be a record number of vendors attending.
Hosted in Cleveland’s AsiaTown neighborhood, the annual festival showcases Asian cultural performances and businesses, including those located in the neighborhood and beyond.
“We want to highlight the neighborhood and let people know that this is here year-round,” said festival co-founder and co-producer Lisa Wong. “We put on the Cleveland Asian Festival so that people can find what they're looking for and try new things and come back.”
Wong said the festival will have more than 100 exhibitors, in addition to about 30 food vendors and food trucks. Johnny K. Wu, festival co-founder and co-producer, said that adds up to a record-breaking number of vendors and performances for the festival.
“We want to bring economic growth to the area and also showcase our culture, our heritage, our activities and different ethnic food that we have available,” said Wu.
In addition to cultural performances and dances, the co-founders said there will also be free health screenings, trivia and a food competition. Wu said while the first year the festival attracted 10,000 people for a one-day event, now, they are expecting about 50,000 people over the course of the weekend.
Kicking off the festival on Saturday morning will be a performance from the Kwan Family Lion Dance Team, demonstrating a traditional Chinese lion dance.
George Kwan, coordinator and leader of the team, has been participating in the traditional dance since he was a child, explaining the lion dance brings good luck and good fortune to those who view it.
“Not only are we sharing it with the community at large, but we're also trying to remind the next generations, ‘Hey, we have to keep these traditions alive or else they'll disappear,’” Kwan said. “So that's one of the things that I want to do is make sure that this tradition in the family carries on, by one -- continuing the tradition and performing, but also learning some of the techniques and things that were shared with me many, many years ago.”
The festival is free to attend, and runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, May 18, and Sunday, May 19. For more information on the festival, a list of food vendors and parking information, click here.