Pacific Rim Street Fest

There’s been a change in venue for this year’s festival. Instead of it being held in Old Sacramento, this year’s festival was held at Southside Park.
Hewlett Packard showcased its latest technology, Sprout, which is a 3-​D scanning and printing software and HP took people on a guided tour. Its printer creates three-​dimensional object, taking up to seven hours to complete. But the highlight of the Pacific Rim Festival was Ronald McDonald. He was jovial and turned to my camera and made a pose. I was suffering from the worst allergies and Ronald McDonald brightened up my day.
The food vendors were selling their food cheap. Ten pieces of lumpia for seven dollars. The Rainbow Snow Shave Ice were selling grilled cheese sandwiches for five bucks and Sweet Corn Café were selling its corn for four dollars each, and sun tea or fresh lemonade for three dollars.
T-​shirt vendors were selling shirts of past Pacific Rim events for five dollars a piece. The new location for the festival is a marked improvement from its traditional venue in Old Sac.

Not EVEN ENOUGH food vendors!!! Lines way too long to wait for $ 15 small ass egg roles and small plates of food. They could make more $$ if they’d just have more vendors. Our family’s leaving w/​o any food… going to restaurant instead! How disappointing.

This is one of my favorite festivals in Sacramento. This was the first year it was held in Southside Park. It had always been located in Old Sacramento before. The weather was perfect as it was only in the 70s. The older trees in the park provided much needed shade especially if you were there to watch the different kinds of entertainment at two separate stages. We enjoyed watching many performances like the Ohana Dance Group, Halau Hula O Kalama dancers, VFW Lion Dance, Sacramento Taiko Dan drummers, Korean Samulnori and Unsupervised band.
Besides business booths there they had different vendors selling a multitude of items from clothing, jewelry and different knick knacks. I in fact purchased earrings, a Hawaiian dress and a Spam lunchbox. I guess today was my turn to shop!
I have to admit we got caught up in the entertainment that by the time we decided to eat the food lines were terribly long! My fault for not planning ahead and purchasing food earlier. Plus we were there so early too! Because parking was so precious we decided to walk a few blocks away to grab a snack to eat. Thank goodness I was very familiar with that neighborhood!
They did have a huge McDonald’s booth where we were able to get a free cultural McDonald’s bag, postcard and happy meal toy that was Rico from Penguins of Madagascar movie. They also had another huge business mobile van there that showed us the newest HP computer and 3D printer. Technology has come so far. I am ready to buy that new computer really soon. I was sure they said that was available at Best Buy! Was this a sign??? Well the Mercury is still in retrograde but for only another week. I have waited this long. What’s another week or two?
Bottom line will we come back? Of course we will unless we have conflicting plans. I hope they have it on Sunday like it had been before then parking on the street won’t be so bad. It looks like the event is organized by many hardworking volunteers. Hope that it continues as I know last year it was on hiatus. I hate to see it fall by the wayside!

Please note that this year’s Street Fest has changed venues.
This year (2016) it will be held on May 14 at Southside Park, not in Old Sacramento. The address has been changed accordingly on this page.

This years Pacific Rim was pretty good again. The layout was different than what we were used to in the past. Instead of having the food vendors all on one street …(it was 2^nd ave) They put them at opposite ends of each other. Fewer vendors (food and retail) just like what I have seen lately in other festivals this year. I wonder if it is because of the cost involved doing events like this.
Not as many people that I noticed. Easy to move around. People in Sacramento are a bit stupid. (at least at this event) I had to move the crowd out of the way to make way for a vendor in one of those electric carts they use at these events that carry them and items to their tents/​booth.
These idiots were in line for food and the person driving this cart said she had no horn and seemed rather shy about moving people out of here way. So I split up the crowd and made a pathway for this cart. I only got one person with an attitude. But she moved anyway… LOL
Oh, by the way… did I mention I was using a walker doing this? I was walking in front of this cart for this volunteer so she could get her electric cart through the crowd… LOL I just had surgery 2 days prior to this event so I needed this walker. At first nobody wanted to move, but then when they saw the walker, they changed their mind real fast… LOL. Stupid people kinda pisses me off, so I went for it. Before I stepped in, nobody was moving out of her way… Idiots… LOL…
Have a great day people

I have been three times over the last few years and Pacific Rim is a great food festival with some fun vendors. The best part is that it’s free and located in Old Sac, so you can wander into the bars periodically to get some AC and a frosty beverage! I will say that some of the food choices are repetitive or a little lackluster, but if you’re selective there are some good finds! I never miss out on a chicken kabob, and last year I really loved Slightly Skewed — we split two delicious fried rice balls and a pork belly skewer. There always seem to be multiple places that have lumpia, but by the end of the day the food vendors kind of start running out of the most appetizing dishes. It’s just a one-​day affair so get there early!

I love this festival! Located in the streets of Old Sacramento with different activities and shows to watch. They have about 3 different stages and many booths. I’ve never received so many free goodies at a festival before. I got about 4 recycle grocery bags, 3 t-​shirts, a funnel, and pens. Love the family oriented atmosphere and love the diversity of cultures that this festival brings together. Highly recommend this festival!

I heard about this event from one of my friends who is a native to Sacramento. She has been attending annually. I made an effort to include this in my calendar once I found out about it and told my family to keep this day reserved [May 19^th] :)
We arrived at a parking lot in downtown Sacramento around 2pm, got my parking ticket validated in Macy’s (first 3 hours are free!). Walked over to Old Sac through the tunnel area and started going around all the booths. There were a lot of people!
We were able to get some free swags (Wells Fargo-​chopsticks, red envelopes, calendars | Kaiser Permanente– paper fans | McDonald’s– gold pin (for beating my dad in dice version of rock, paper & scissor, cute reusable bag, free smoothie coupons | mosquito repellent toilettes, mail opener, pencils from booths that I can’t remember.) There were volunteers passing out popsicles too! It was so refreshing on a hot day.
Plenty of food booths and stage performances.
I will definitely try to come back next year. Perhaps as a volunteer or working for a company in a booth!

Pacific Islander & Hawaiian Awareness Blossoming in All of it’s Beauty
SITREP
Never is Old Sacramento decked out in a more exotic and gorgeous manner. Beautiful booths, kiosks, food vendors, and active-​life organizations are out in full-​force to to share their culture and history with those willing to listen.
SETUP
I’ve been enjoying the Pacific Rim Street Festival for more than 15 years, on and off (though more ON) and I have to say it remains one of the highlights of my Springs. The streets are filled all along the major grid of Old Sac, but that doesn’t detract from the all the regular businesses in Old Sac. There is a tremendous synergy that goes with the whole business community that attracts a lot fun energy with the people that pack the streets.
MARTIAL ARTS
I have always been a fan of Andy Ah Po and his school dojo as they perform many exciting feats of martial art prowess for the crowd. As a good friend, I look forward to seeing Andy and his students.
THE FOOD!
You can’t lose here as you have so many culinary delights to choose from, with noodles, rice and fried delicacies aplenty. Filipino cuisine seems to be my favorite at these ventures since I don’t usually find it any other time.
THE SWAG
There are a lot of free souvenirs to collect from various booths, and I have to say that the Dragon and Lion puppets are some of the cutest. Which before I forget, this is a GREAT environment for kids, to learn about other cultures if they themselves are not from or exposed often to Asian cultures. The opportunity to learn from so many friendly people is a boon to promoting great diversity awareness.
THE LOWDOWN
Whether for food, cultural arts & crafts, martial art demonstrations, and did I mention the food?, you can’t go wrong on having a great time here.

I admit, my reason for attending this event is because I love lion dancing. It’s one of my favorite things — ever! They taught it at my old martial arts school, but I was already taking two classes and couldn’t manage another. So I catch it when I can! My kid was so excited by the lion dancing he wants to learn how (better see if my old school still offers it).
Secondly, I want my son exposed to some of his culture. We are pretty mixed with Chinese and Filipino being some of the dominant ancestry. My Asian relatives all live far away so this fest is a good opportunity to show him some traditional dances and other demonstrations on the many stages, buy him a ½ Pinoy T-​shirt, and get a wide mix of yummy foods.
Thirdly, there are a lot of freebies! You can score some shirts, bags, fans, etc. My son liked the kid’s craft area where he could make dragon masks, lion puppets, weird little bugs, and lots more. He’ is SO not into arts and crafts, but this area really appealed to him.
My only advice to people who are thinking of attending in the future is to bring your wallet, bring some water, prepare for the sun (being in May you never know what kind of weather you will get), and grab a program.

I have attended or performed martial arts at this event since 2005… great events, food and booths with free handouts. Great to see all our different cultures in Sacramento in one great spot. !

This year’s theme is Spices. I’m not exactly sure how they incorporated the theme into the actual festival though.
If you come here, it is best to park in Downtown Plaza then walk over to Old Sacramento.
At the festival, I was most concerned with what it had to offer in terms of food.
I decided to get the BBQ Chicken Kabob. The prices were not posted, so I didn’t see how much it cost until I was at the counter– $ 7. Not worth it! Especially when I found out that my friend who also ordered a kabob at another food stand paid $ 5. :/​
The only other thing I got was the Halo Halo at Lollicup. Halo-​Halo (mix-​mix) is a Filipino dessert. This version consisted of red bean, white bean, sweet chick bean, red kaong, coconut string, coconut jellies, and flan topped with shaved ice, vanilla & ube ice cream. It was ok. It needed more ube ice cream!
Overall, I wished they had more of a variety of foods.
There were four separate stages spread out in different areas, so there are plenty of performances you can watch. The only performance I really watched was the Hmong Cultural Dance and the Chinese Harpist.
I also stood in line for about an hour at the McDonald’s Family Pavilion. I scored a free Asian inspired bag and two $ 2 gift cards. McDonald’s dollar menu– here I come!

Hehe, I love these because I usually attend them every year and I love the Ronald McDonald placeeeee they haaave =)

Okay, technically the Pacific Rim Street Fest is NOT an amusement park, however there is not an «annual event» subcategory.
The Pacific Rim Street Fest has been a part of the Sacramento community since 1993. It is held every year in Old Town Sac the third Sunday of May. It has been rated by Sacramento Magazine as the Number One Thing to Do in Sacramento (
). Its a great, public event that showcases the diversity and richness of Pacific Rim cultures… and its FREE!
There are generally five different entertainment stages where you will find amazing Tahitian dancers to lion dancing to choral groups — and much more! The two biggest stages have adjoining beer gardens for thirsty adult patrons to enjoy drinking and entertainment. Food vendors from all over line up the streets and the aromas lure you in. Various ethnic foods can be found — you could eat your way through the festival if you wanted!
I have been going for the last four years now and each year it is just a lot of fun plus you get to see a lot of familiar faces. From elected officials to favorite entertainers its just a fun place to people watch.
Check it out!