Cleveland Asian Festival

I’ve been looking forward to this event for a while!

The Cleveland Asian Festival is typically held every May and stretches from East 30th to East 27th street in downtown Cleveland. It’s a great festival that celebrates Asian culture, food, and people.

I got downtown an hour early to get the best parking (whoo!) and then walked up and down Euclid Avenue until the festival started. My favorite event of the day was the dragon dance. I wish I had a longer lens with me, though. Many of the other photographers there had large telephoto lenses. However…if there’s one thing I don’t like, it’s carrying heavy lenses. I’m already carrying at least two lenses on me at a given time…if I’m going to carry more than one lens, I want them to be small and portable, like the 50mm.

There were tons of food vendors, including my favorite, Parilya. I also visited a boba tea stand that makes a great (albeit a little sweet) brown sugar boba tea. And I couldn’t leave without getting myself a little anklet as a gift.

It was great to see the festival so busy. Almost all of Cleveland turned up for the event. No wonder the festival’s been running for almost 15 years now.

I enjoyed the opportunity to take pictures of folks standing in line, walking around, or cooking. The great thing about large events like that is that no one’s paying attention to you. Also, there are so many other photographers there they just assume you’re working for the event and go about their business. Add a small mirrorless camera and people really don’t take notice.

Ultimately, I stayed for about 4 hours before I had to leave because my feet were aching. And I also spilled boba tea on my shirt.