Wichita Asian Festival returns after one-year off, will feature scary ‘Squid Game’ treat
The Wichita Asian Festival — like most anticipated Wichita events — skipped 2020 because of fears over the COVID-19 pandemic.
And like most anticipated Wichita events, it’s returning for 2021, though it will be scaled down.
The free festival, which will happen from 5 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, always takes place inside Century II’s Convention and Exhibition Halls and features cultural performances, craft vendors and a Miss Wichita Asian Festival scholarship pageant.
The big draw every year, though, is the festival’s lineup of food vendors offering sweet and savory dishes from a variety of Asian countries. During a typical year, people pack in for the event and line up for food prepared by about 50 different vendors.
This year, though, said Wichita Asian Association President Chiaw-Weai Loo, the festival will have only about 17 food vendors and another five craft vendors. Some have dropped out over ongoing concerns about COVID-19, she said, but organizers also wanted to scale things back.
“We have pandemic precautions in place,” she said. “We reduced the number of vendors that we used to have to facilitate social distancing.”
Though the number of vendors will be reduced, Loo said, a couple will be serving some trendy treats.
One will be offering a popular Chinese street food called tanghulu: fruit glazed with candy, which makes it look like it’s encased in glass.
Another booth will be selling dalgona candy, which is a Korean honeycomb sugar candy made with cut out shapes in the middle. The treat was recently featured, to horrifying effect, on Netflix’s surprise hit show “Squid Game.”
Dalgona candy is a popular street food and edible game: the goal is to eat around the cutout pattern without breaking it. In real life, failing means you lost the sweet game. On “Squid Game,” well. . . maybe skip the show until after the Asian Festival.
This will be the 40th installment of the Asian Festival, which during pre-pandemic years often drew 10,000 people.
Admission is free, though the Asian Association will accept donations. The first 1,000 people through the door will be entered into a raffle to win a $250 Dillons gift card.
Volunteers and vendors will be required to wear masks at the festival, and attendees will be encouraged to do so. Organizers will have masks on hand for those who don’t have them.
For more information, visit www.wichitaasianassociation.org.
This story was originally published October 20, 2021 at 5:01 AM.
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