Despite persistent rain on Sunday, a crowd of about 34,000 people attended the 8th annual Cleveland Asian Festival on the weekend of May 20 and 21 in Cleveland's AsiaTown neighborhood on Payne Avenue.
Wayne Wong served as MC for the 2017 Cleveland Asian Festival (CAF).
Wayne Wong
Wayne asked the crowd how many were newcomers to CAF and AsiaTown and about 25% of the crowd indicated they were.
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Wayne told the crowd a little about the mission of CAF in Cleveland's AsiaTown before introducing Vi Huynh who is one of the three founders of CAF. Vi thanked the volunteers and Wayne thanked the sponsors.
Vi Huynh
Wayne introduced the Kwan Family Lion Dance for their annual kickoff performance. Wayne also explained some of the symbolism of the lion dance. Here are some highlights of the Kwan Family Lion Dance.
Kwan Family Lion Dance Team
Next, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson spoke to the crowd. Wayne then introduced Cleveland Police Department (CPD) Commander Jones and 15 CPD officers of Asian heritage for recognition.
Brunswick Mayor Ron Falconi is of Filipino heritage and he spoke at the 2017 Cleveland Asian festival. He said we are all united because we all call America our home.
Brunswick Mayor Ron Falconi
Cleveland Ward 7 Councilman TJ Dow represents 3 neighborhoods: Hough, St Clair-Superior and AsiaTown. He spoke at the 2017 Cleveland Asian Festival about how the cultural education and diversity is important.
Cleveland Ward 7 Councilman TJ Dow
Ohio State Representative for District 10 Bill Patmon spoke about the festival and neighborhood.
Ohio State Representative for District 10 Bill Patmon
Wayne introduced the members of the Executive Board of the Festival: Vi Huynh, Lisa Wong, Johnny Wu, Mike Mendoza, Siu-yan Scott and Yin Tang.
Cleveland Asian Festival Executive Board (not in photo, Deborah Yue)
Wayne had to leave early because of personal issues but his replacement Asim Datta thanked him on behalf of all of us.
Young ladies from the Laotian Association of Cleveland performed both a traditional Laotian dance to celebrate the Laotian New Year and another, more modern, traditional Laotian dance.
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Young ladies from the Laotian Association of Cleveland
The persistent rain on Sunday forced the OCA Cleveland Dragon Dance Team to move inside Asia Plaza instead of parading through the Festival grounds. But they did a great job in the Plaza and even danced through Li Wah restaurant to the delight of the diners.
WOIO news anchor Chris Tanaka introduced Reakt, an artist from Tokyo Japan who is touring North America. Reakt performs a mix of Japanese pop and hip-hop.
One of the highlights of the annual Cleveland Asian Festival is the Colors of Asia Fashion Show. Countries represented in 2017 included China, Laos, Vietnam, Japan, India, Korea and Mongolia.
New to the 2017 Cleveland Asian Festival was a demonstration of Asian cooking. Anjan Ghose assisted by his wife Kathy presented two dishes.
Anjan prepared Cucumber Raita (Cucumber in Yogurt) and then a Sweet and Sour Strawberry Snack.
Vietnamese Cooking demonstration by Pho Thang Cafe
New to the 2017 Cleveland Asian Festival was a demonstration of Asian cooking. Nancy and Susan from Pho Thang Cafe presented two dishes.
They prepared Vietnamese Chicken Cabbage Salad and then Vietnamese Summer Rolls.
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