All throughout May, WTOP is celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with stories about the people and places shaping the D.C. region.
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and in Old Town Fairfax, crowds came out to celebrate and to eat.
Visitors walking through the blocked off roads along Main Street got to sample a variety of Asian cuisines from dozens of vendors, including dishes like mango sticky rice, beef dumplings and chicken yakitori.
Nini Nguyen, who is of Vietnamese heritage, was trying an unfamiliar Indonesian dish.
“It looks like shiitake mushrooms, bok choy, noodles, chicken wontons and chicken,” she described.
She said she appreciated that the festival drew a mix of people from different Asian countries as well as non-Asians.
“It’s good to share our culture with other cultures too,” Nguyen said.
Tess Rollins, this year’s chair of the Asian Festival on Main said that over 12 Asian countries were represented including the Philippines, Japan, Korea, India and Vietnam.
“We love to show people how proud we are of where we grew up,” she told WTOP.
Rollins, who is also the Executive Director Old Town Fairfax Business Association, estimated that more than 20% of businesses in Old Town are Asian-owned. The festival, now in its 4th year, was the brainchild of one Main Street business owner.
“She had an idea during COVID of having the neighborhood and the community learn more about Asian cultures,” she said.
Festivalgoers also had the opportunity to make to make origami art, have their name handwritten in Chinese calligraphy, or buy handmade crafts.
The festival also featured a performance by the Choy Wun Lion Dance Troupe. The group performed for the President at last year’s Lunar New Year celebration at the White House.
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