Lotus Festival

If you’re like me, you love going to Echo Park Lake to see the beautifully restored grounds and bright blue lake full of ducklings and turtles. This year was my first time attending the Lotus Festival, a celebration of the blooming flowers for the whole community. While this isn’t a huge festival with massive rows of booths or grand productions, it is worth attending– it’s free, the lotus flowers and waterlilies are in their full glory, and it’s a chance to experience the Echo Park community.
In addition to the picturesque lotus flowers in the lake, the festival features a collection of local vendors and community organizations, authentic local food (aguas frescas, pupusas, elote…) and live performers– when I was there it was a comedian. The Echo Park Historical Society had a booth and did walking tours a couple times a day, which I wish I had done– they also had old photographs of Echo Park on display.
Parking was free in a nearby school’s field, plus street parking. The day I went it was full sun, so bring a hat and sunscreen!

Always wanted to check out Echo Park Lake after the renovation. It’s a little hidden off Sunset so you’ll need a GPS and address to find it.
My first time at Lotus Festival and enjoyed feeling part of the community at this event. They had dragon boat racing, stage entertainment and food available for purchase. The most exotic and interesting choice for me was the Indonesian fare so I stood in line and wait for a long while for my satay and strawberry lemonade in a mason jar.
While there, I recommend bring a camera for photographs, taking some shows at the stage and walking around the lake.
If you haven’t been, I recommend checking it at least once. I parked in Walgreens on Sunset down the street and it was an easy walk. To make myself feel less guilty, I bought something and asked if I can park there for couple hours.

Very cool festival. live band lots of vendors with great food. Dragon dance entertainment. so many choices. lines long for the food but so worth it. everything is fresh and I will go to a couple of restaurant’s due to this festival. will go again next yr and bring the kids.

This event felt more like a community gathering that just so happened to have lotus flowers nearby rather than an actual «lotus festival.»
I was excited because I got caught up reading about the history of the lotuses at the park, when they ceased to exist, and how they got them back. I expected there to be more emphasis on the lotuses but the event really didn’t have much to do with the flower at all. Granted they were absolutely gorgeous to look at, I would think they’d have I don’t know: lotuses for sale or seeds or booths to make paper lotuses or paint them on for the kids or something pertaining to the title of the event.
It was really difficult to find out any info about the event beforehand too. There was a flyer and a Facebook page but that was the extent of it; nothing else about the performances or activities and no one was managing the FB page to answer people’s questions. Just poor advertising overall.
Also, the food there seemed like your typical fair food. The host country was The Philippines, so although I appreciated the booth about Filipino history and flyers about how «it’s more fun in the Philippines,» they were so close to Ptown, they should’ve had more local shops or restaurants present at the event. I was looking forward to getting some good homemade Filipino food.
All negative aside, I did have a good time being outside at the park on that beautiful day. There were some adorable succulents for sale (that I forgot to purchase on my way out). I also watched some dragon boat races, a few cultural dances, and enjoyed some piña colada boba slush. Maybe next year will be worth the 30 min drive but this year was rather disappointing.

This was my first time going to this festival and I thought it was alright. Though I arrived pretty late (7:00PM) on Saturday.
You definitely do not want to come by in the evening as most of the events will be over by then and some of the tents will be closed. And if you are driving in from another city, then you will have to fight the traffic to get into the city.
Parking will definitely be a nightmare, so make sure you take/​make a map of parking lots in the area. It is best if you carpool and also drive a smaller vehicle. There were apparently signs directing festival goers to a parking lot, but I never found it.
I was actually expecting there to be more Filipino food available at the festival since it was the host country this year, but there was only one food stand. I think there might have been a food tent, but it was already closed when I arrived.
If you plan to eat food there or watch any of the acts on the stage, then bring something to sit on. There were a pitiful amount of dining tables near the food stands.
The other tents in the area were selling boho clothes, ethnic bags, succulents (I think?), and trinkets (I saw some of those «Flip Flap» knock-​off, solar-​powered… toys?). There was also a Red Cross (?) there if you wanted to donate blood.
Also, you will not find a schedule of the events on the festival’s Facebook page. You will just have to do a search for it. There is a website somewhere that lists the schedule.

It was the 1^st time I attended the festival and enjoyed it greatly although I went there by myself. This is a great community event for families or friends who like to get together in the park to enjoy the performance and a great varieties of food. I didn’t get to see the dragon boat race, perhaps I was a little late as I got there at around 2:30 PM on Sat. It gives me a reason to attend the festival again next year. Getting there as close as the start time of the festival is probably a good idea. I ended up parking in a residential area more than half a mile away. It was a hot day and was humid too so walking a long distance was not pleasant. There were shady areas in the park where people could sit down and watch the performance, again, you have to be there earlier to sit in the shade. There are many choices for food, hot dog and hamburgers are not on the list. The is a festival celebrating Asian-​Pacific cultures so one should not be surprised to see all the Asian food vendors, even the Simpang Asia Indonesian was there. The satays look so inviting, unfortunately, the line was long and you had to wait for another 20 min or so after you placed your order. Almost all lines were long, if not, you may wonder why no one liked that particular food vendor. There were not enough tables for all but were tables in the food area where people could sit down and enjoy the meals.

This place is amazing! WAY better than the hookah bar I usually go to. The tea selection is awesome. We got the honey one, and definitely recommend it. Hookah is great. They also have a great sushi selection. Location is super close to USC which is great if you’re a student.
I’ll definitely be coming back ASAP. And our waitress was super helpful :) love this place! And if you’re here, ask for one of the beds! We were so surprised that they had beds and couches!
Next time I’ll try one of their drinks from the bar too…

I look forward to this event every year! I think they cancelled the recent years because of budget cuts? not sure… I know they have an irvine global festival which is similar… and way closer!
love the variety of performances, there’s rides if you dare. Lotus is always cool to see.
nice park, sketchy neighborhood
I love culture!

This was the first time going to the lotus festival, and well… it didn’t disappoint. Though i had a pretty good time here, I hear that this event is one of those «deteriorating things» in LA which resulted in this year being a disappointment for many people. Personally, (as a first timer) i enjoyed myself a lot.
Woulda loved to see Lotus flowers and Dragon Boats though.
Just go.

The city did their best over below budget due to the economy. The best part about this year was the all around cultural presentation China definitely brought the whole culture to the Lotus Festival 2010. Food are great and for the very first time I’ve seen a vegan food in this Lotus Fest and many other great food to mention!

7-​10-​2010 and 7-​11-​2010 I was looking forward to see the Dragon Boat races at the Lotus Festival in Echo Park. Unfortunately there is no dragon race this year. (Minus 1 star)
I was expecting to see blooming of beautiful lotus flowers. Unfortunately there is no lotus flower at all. Not a single flower. (Minus 1 star).
We did not go to the designated parking at Logan Street Elem School.
We parked on Sunset Blvd near Logan St. The meter was not working. Several other parking meters were not working either. After feeding the parking meter with some quarters, we found out that it’s free on Sunday. No one is watching the public lot on Logan St. This area looked unsafe to to park. (Minus 1 star)
The food vendors looked good.
Overall, I don’t think I’ll come back next year.
Direction:

The Lotus Festival was really lame this year. It was actually depressing.
The food selection was mainly greasy deep fried items, kettle corn and the typical «farmers market» fair (quotes imply sarcasm). This has slipped WAY downhill from the earlier days of the festival which had things like homemade ice cream and Japanese food.
There were also plenty of the «farmers market» cheap clothing, jewelry & handmade soap vendors AND there were miles & miles of used clothing, shoes and plain old JUNK being sold on the east side of the lake.
The entertainment was a little disappointing — sorry entertainers.
And now for the depressing part.
There were pet vendors there! … and some of the poor birds and small animals did not look happy or well. The people selling them were in the shade but the birds were panting in their cages in the hot sun, and I did not see water pans in some of the cages. That was such a downer.
I saw small children (3 – 4 years old) walking at the festival with baby rabbits and guinea pigs in their cupped hands. I couldn’t help but wonder about the fate of those little creatures (and I don’t mean the kids).
All in all… a pretty depressing event. Why bother calling it the Lotus Festival.
There still are no lotus on the lake — they could not survive the trash and pollution :(

I’ve been going to this festival since I was a little girl. This year I was very disappointed I took my son for the first time and there weren’t many things to do like prior years, very dirty.
There are less people and a lot of little thugs. To top it off my car got broken into, they broke my window and scratched inside. Thank goodness that nothing was taken. it was just a very disappointing day

There were no Lotus flowers. Smaller than other years. Food options were good though.
I just wasn’t feeling it… And a lot of the vendors were selling lame stuff this year! I wish I could give this year’s Lotus Festival five starts, but, honestly, my experience was not 5 star-​worthy. I would have thought the organizers of the event would have gone all out since the park will be closing for two years for construction, but I guess not.

Yay! This was on my bday this year. This was my first year coming and I’m glad I did. It merged with the Echo Park Festival, probably because everyone is hurting from all the budget cuts. I didn’t see any lotuses because there were none to be seen but I did enjoy all the vendors and food. I had a pomegranate gelato which was very good. And I bought a mesh chair support thing so I don’t develop back problems from sitting at my computer all day at work. Lots of cute and cheap jewelry plus plants: bonsai and bamboo. Oh yeah, I saw this band playing the White Stripes and they rocked it big time! And they were all like 10 years old, not kidding. They were better than many other bands I’ve seen live at festivals.
We parked at a lot close by for like $ 2 which I thought was good since parking was nonexistent. Oh, by the way, because I want to mention this, the port a potties were actually clean and didn’t smell bad.
The park has a great pedestrian and picturesque bridge and many places are great photo opps.

I attended the 2009 Lotus festival which has recently been changed to the «Echo Park Community Festival». Why has the name changed you ask? Because (yes I know you shouldn’t start a sentence with «because» but oh well) due to pollution NO lotuses have grown. It saddened me to see the poor, weak stems of the lotuses amongst garbage. I was extremely disappointed, there was not one lotus. I did enjoy the fact that all cultures of the community came out to participate. It was however a bit confusing, considering I thought it was going to lean more towards an Asian theme but since the name has changed, I assume the merchants have as well. I went there a few years back and it was lotus galore now it’s barren. Tsk tsk

The Lotus Festival is one of my favorites in Los Angeles. There’s a broad cross-​section of L.A. that comes out for it. It’s centered around the blooming of the beautiful lotus flower and is a celebration of Pan-​Asian culture. The lotus flowers don’t always bloom when they are supposed to, but you can’t really tie nature to a schedule. The lotus flowers bloom in Echo Park Lake. They also hold dragon boat races in the lake.
My favorite feature of the festival is all of the food. There are lots of food booths set up by local businesses selling food from various Asian countries: Thailand, China, Japan, Vietnam, etc. There are also food booths with standard festival fair like roasted corn, kettle corn, sno cones and hot dogs.
Additionally, you will find a large selection of vendor booths selling everything from homemade jewelry to clothing to art to knick-​knacks to plants and souvenirs. Often you can even find fish and birds for sale. I always leave the festival with a new plant.
But, the Lotus Festival isn’t just for a shopping and eating, it also has an educational component. You can learn more about the history of L.A., the history of the festival, health prevention and ethnic studies.
There is entertainment, as well: a game area for children with a moon bounce and other fun activities. There are performances by local acts like dancing and singing.
The only downside is that parking can be really tough to find. I’d suggest getting their early for the best parking. There are usually designated parking lots at schools and nearby businesses. If you don’t mind walking a bit, you can find street parking in the surrounding residential areas.
This is a very well done and well organized festival and you get to see a side of L.A. that is often overlooked amidst the glitz and glamour of the city.

I used to go every year but stopped when the food got worse and worse. Isn’t festival food supposed to be something you look forward to? Notably missing for a few years were the USC Asian fraternity that would sell the dangoes. Mmm, they were the best! Sometimes you can find them selling them at the Obon Festival in Little Tokyo but they seemed to have disappeared. Has the older brothers taken the recipe? Bring the dangoes back!
The Lotus Festival features dragon boat races, entertainment, arts and crafts and of course, the flowers.
I do enjoy some of the vendors. I like the air plants, the cacti, the honey and cheapie jewelery. One year, I got an autograph from James Hong, the actor from Big Trouble, Little China. He was their «celebrity» they had show up. Funny!
The boy told me this year they weren’t blooming which was probably just as well we didn’t go though the festival is just down the street from him. It was a madhouse to try to get around Echo Park last weekend. Your best bet for parking is to park far away and be shuttled in or just walk.
Maybe I’ll try to go next year if the lotus are blooming. After all the rumor is, Echo Park Lake is apparently the only body of water that has these plants outside of Asia.

I was under the impression that this was a Japanese themed festival so I was a little disappointed to find that there was hardly any Japanese vendors there.
The food tents were all serving Thai food, I guess this should’ve been expected since we’re soooo close to the highly Thai populated part of town.
They had one Japanese food tent, I had the Okonomiyaki, so I got my fix. As for the merchandise vendors, a mix of clothes, cheap bags, and random items.
The pros were: Free admission.
Good performances if you go on the right day.
Flower market area, I got some baby cactuses.
Some décor, there was a very pretty dragon boat floating around the Lake.
Good music.
Nice to get out to walk around, might pass on this next year. =p

what happened to the lotus plants?! no blooms, heck, no plants even. what happened?
the lotus festival went ahead full force without the blooming lotus plants. what a shame though because they truly are beautiful. the festival was busy with the same kind of festival-​y things, crafts booths, info. booths, and asian eateries mixed with some funnel cake and cotton candy. parking is always a headache, but because i live close enough, i usually just walk. i had a bad experience with one vendor, but no damper. i am always a fan of the lotus festival and come annually. maybe next year, i can catch the fireworks.