Riverside Lunar Festival

Honeybuns and I decided to come today for the lunar new year festival. The program specified more as «Asian» instead of just Chinese, so there were all kinds of asian things. We didn’t plan well, so we missed the opening ceremony, parade, lion/​dragon dance. Drat !!!
The public parking structure was free, and just steps from the event. Really really nice! We got there around 11:30am or so, and there were still some spots.
The event itself is also free, which was really really nice. It’s setup like a street fair, and all the roads for the event were blocked off. There were lots of shows to see, 3 separate staging area; we saw taiko drums, martial arts demonstration, with one guy hitting a sword on his own head and breaking it instead of killing him, to sakura dance, a Chinese Yi ethnic people dance, to Chinese opera. Honeybuns said it sounded like cats catterwhauling… The tea pavilions area had actual Japanese tea ceremony, and different people had different teas (Indians had masala chai tea tasting, Vietnamese had green tea), the arts & crafts area had special paper hat folding thing, origami folding, coloring w/​markers; the Wells Fargo had red envelopes to give out (but no money inside), and a stainless travel mug if you signed up to open an account; the Fire Department had some kind of safety lecture thingy, which we just walked by; even Tzu Chi had buddhist monks there handing out pamphlets and talking to people. We didn’t stop by the petting zoo, since it had lots of kids there. There were plenty of cosplayers attending too, which made it interesting people watching and guessing which characters they were playing.
As for food, there were plenty of vendors spread out. Tanota takoyaki, okonomiyaki, lobster rolls & bisque, pork belly tacos, redneck sushi (it’s a cooked beef roll with no rice), lots of fried stuff, kettle corn, shaved ice … but our favorite gluten-​free place was the Indonesian satays. We spent $ 33 there gorging on satay sticks, and our favorite were the pork and lamb sticks. There were other Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian food, which we had to pass on gluten. The BBQ pork nachos were our 2^nd pick. We did try the bacon mochi stick at the Hawaiian stand, which was pretty good if you like savory food, mochi and bacon.
With the huge variety of entertainment, food, booths, and lots of people but not so crowded that you can’t breath, we enjoyed it very much. Definitely coming again next year!

A random hodge podge of craziness. Booths with everything from handmade items to Wells Fargo and the Fire Department discussing home safety.
I love the Tea Pavillions featuring tea and tea customs from different parts of Asia. The kids area has free arts & crafts, a petting zoo, and live entertainment. The food area has many vendors and a couple of food trucks with mostly Asian cuisine.
The festival is spread out so its not as crowded as you would think.

Spectacular Parade of Nations at 10am, Opening ceremonies at 10:45 am, then Traditional Asian Music, Taiko Drums, Dance Performances, Art Displays and Exhibitions of Martial Arts, Animé Cosplayers and a range of Asian themed demonstrations of various kinds conducted by community and professionals group throughout the rest of the day on four stages.
–Children’s Village for FREE Arts and Crafts
–complimentary massages.
–authentic Asian food vendors
–Teas at the Tea Pavillion
*edit.just wanted to ‘add the business’ * Not sure how many years they’ve been doin it. Enjoyed last year and I’ll be there tomm Jan 25