Wichita Asian Festival has food, culture and a lot of changes

The annual Wichita Asian Festival is one of Wichita’s more successful cultural celebrations, drawing a crowd of around 6,000 people each year to sample food and take in performances at Century II.

And although its always been a success, said Wichita Asian Association president Lily Wu, the number of people in charge of putting it together has grown smaller every year.

When Wu, who at 29 was the youngest person ever elected to serve as the association’s president, took office last year, she identified that issue as a problem, especially if the festival had any chance of continuing another 35 years.

She recruited about 15 to 20 new volunteers to the association, most of them college age, and gave them leadership roles within the association and the festival. The group agreed on many changes and upgrades to the festival, which happens on Saturday evening, and this year, there’s a whole lot of new, from the program cover to the festival’s first out-of-town headlining performer.

Not all of the changes have been popular with longtime organizers, Wu said, but change is necessary to remain relevant.

“We’re trying to be more inclusive,” she said. “We had more people getting interested in becoming more active, and I wanted to make sure those people felt included.”

Among the changes visitors will notice when they visit the festival this weekend:

A headliner: In the past, people who weren’t eating Asian delicacies were watching a lineup of local Asian performers doing Dragon dances, performing traditional music and more. Those performers will be back, but this year, organizers booked a notable headliner, too. The Acrobats of China, a Branson-based group that performs daring tricks, will take the stage at 7 p.m. Their show will involve human body juggling and hoop diving.

New program book: Admission to the festival is still free, but the program book, which serves as a guide to the event, no longer is. Organizers have decided to charge $5 for programs this year and will stuff them full of coupons, including several that offer $1 off at festival food booths.

The book’s cover also has changed for the first time since the festival started. Organizers are replacing the standard cover, which featured a drawing of bamboo poles, to one created by a local artist as part of an artwork contest. It features chrysanthemum flowers and a full moon, and it’s on all of the festival’s marketing materials as well.

Bigger web presence: The Wichita Asian Association will debut a fancy new website, www.wichitaasianassociation.org, during the Asian Festival, and it also is using its Facebook and Twitter accounts to promote the festival. Fans are being encouraged to post about and from the festival using the hashtag WAF2015.

A kid’s area: Festival chairwoman Kathy Ewing, who will take over as president of the Wichita Asian Association in December, has a 10-year-old daughter named Emma, whom she adopted from China. Last year, Emma bought a yo-yo from a Chinese vendor, but as she tried to play with it, she was always in someone’s way.

Emma had an idea.

“She said, ‘Mama, we need something for the little kids.’ And I said, ‘Done,’ ” Ewing said.

The festival will now have a big space dedicated to kids activities that will include crafts, games, paper lantern decorating and yo-yos to play with.

Redefining Asia: Organizers also decided to open the festival, and its scholarship pageant, to a wider group of people. They’ve decided to define “Asian” as anyone from the continent of Asia, and for the first time, a Lebanese contestant will complete in the pageant.

“People say, ‘That’s the Middle East.’ But that’s not a continent, everyone,” Wu said. “This is actually a really great opportunity for us to talk about inclusion and celebrate more Asian diversity.”

Food: The most popular draw at the festival is the food, and organizers aren’t changing much of anything there. The food is serve a la carte from booths staffed by 42 different vendors. They’re home cooks and restaurant owners, and each sells delicacies native to their home country. This year’s festival includes nine Chinese vendors, six Vietnamese, six Filipino, four Malaysian and three Taiwanese. There will also be vendors from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Korea, India and Lebanon.

Restaurants participating include Beard Papa’s, which makes Japanese-style cream puffs, Passage to India, La Galette and BobaZone.

This story was originally published October 21, 2015 at 4:06 PM with the headline "Wichita Asian Festival has food, culture and a lot of changes."