2013 Cleveland Asian Festival
AsiaTown May 18-19, 2013
The 4th annual Cleveland Asian Festival attracted 38,380 attendees over the weekend of May 18-19, 2013. They spent over $2 million in the AsiaTown neighborhood.
There were dozens of performances from local, regional, and national performing groups including headliner Cheesa from NBC's The Voice.
People enjoyed Asian cuisine from over 20 different restaurants and shopping in the World Market which was filled with merchants of Asian themed products while sponsors had informational displays at their tent.
The Mission of the Cleveland Asian Festival is fourfold
Strengthen the identity of AsiaTown and supporting its economic growth
Educate and promote Asian culture and traditions
Celebrate Asian Heritage Month
Unite Cleveland’s Asian Community
and the 2013 Cleveland Asian Festival certainly met those requirements.
In this video clip, MC Wayne Wong introduced the Cleveland Asian Festival Executive Board starting with event founders Lisa Wong, Johnny Wu and Vi Huynh. Then he introduced Yin Tang, Michael Byun, Hao Zhou, Debbie Yue and Michael Mendoza.
Wayne Wong, Lisa Wong, Johnny Wu and Vi Huynh
Cleveland Asian Festival Executive Board
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson welcomed the crowd at the 2013 Cleveland Asian Festival.
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson
Chief Valarie McCall, Wayne Wong,
Mayor Frank Jackson and Johnny Wu
Ohio State Representative Bill Patmon spoke and praised Cleveland's cultural diversity.
Ohio State Representative Bill Patmon
MC Wayne Wong welcomed the crowd to the 4th annual Cleveland Asian Festival and introduces his co-host, WKYC TV news anchor Lynna Lai who told about her Chinese roots.
Wayne Wong and Lynna Lai
Lynna Lai
Other TV personalities were also involved such as Stephanie Coueignoux, Annette Lawless, Melissa Reid and Jason Nguyen.
Stephanie Coueignoux
Annette Lawless
Stephanie Coueignoux, Yin Tang and Wayne Wong
WKYC Channel 3 TV news reporter Stephanie Coueignoux told her co-MC Wayne Wong that the Cleveland Asian Festival is a testament to the rich diversity in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. Stephanie's father is French and her mother is Chinese.
Cleveland Asian Festival co-founder and executive committee member Vi Huynh told the 3 reasons that they have the annual Festival: 1) May is Asian Heritage Month 2) To show AsiaTown and 3) To Build community.
Vi Huynh
Cleveland Asian Festival MC Wayne Wong told of the economic impact of the annual event. The 2012 event attracted over 42,000 people who had a trickle-down effect of over $2 million dollar in the local AsiaTown neighborhood.
Wayne Wong
Johnny Wu is one of the founders of the annual Cleveland Asian Festival (CAF). He gave a recap of the popular event in Cleveland's AsiaTown at the annual meeting of the St. Clair Superior Development Corporation at the Ariel International Center.
