AsiaFest, all-day FREE festival with fun for the whole family, celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

AsiaFest combines culinary, cultural, craft, and performance elements to create an unforgettable day of fun, food, and shopping!

Adults and children of all ages can enjoy performances and demonstrations from 2 dozen groups, while strolling an international bazaar with 15 vendors and sampling fare from 15 food trucks and food vendors.

Performances will run all day long, on two stages, with groups performing Bollywood, Hakka Dance, traditional Korean dance, and Chinese folk dances, amongst others.

Activities and demonstrations for all ages include tinikling demonstrations (like double-dutch jump-rope, with bamboo poles), how to make parols (Christmas lanterns), uchiwa fans, Alpana designs, Ebru art (Turkish style paper-marbling), Kamishibai storytelling, and batik cloth patterns, plus outdoor games like jianzi, kith-kith (like hopscotch), tuho/pitch-pot, hanetsuki (like badminton), and Satoliya/Lagori, among others.

Children can engage in a scavenger hunt ranging all over the property, while adults can stroll the international bazaar, meet merchants from around the world, and purchase jewelry, books, toys, anime-style art, kimonos and other apparel, block prints, soaps and aromatherapy goods, spices, ceramics, and temporary henna tattoos.

New this year: Houston Center for Photography will bring Flash Drive, their giant camera obscura, built from a converted ambulance. HCP will also demonstrate cyanotype photography, using sunlight to develop images.

In addition, Asia Society’s exhibitions will be free that day, including the FotoFest exhibit, INDIA | Contemporary Photographic and New Media Art. Though the other FotoFest exhibits have closed, Asia Society’s FotoFest exhibit is still open.

All in all, groups representing dozens of Asian cultures will be showcased, highlighting Houston’s incredibly diverse populace.

Photo Opps

12pm-3pm, inside and outside.

Performances, craft demonstrations, food, kids’ activities.

AsiaFest sponsors include AARP, H-E-B, Regions Bank, and Teri and Jeff Lee.

Education and outreach programs at Asia Society Texas Center are made possible through generous funding from Karen Chang, Greater Houston Community Foundation, and the George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation. Generous funding also provided by the Friends of Asia Society Texas Center, a premier group of individuals and organizations committed to bringing exceptional programming and exhibitions to Asia Society Texas Center.

About Asia Society Texas Center

With 13 locations throughout the world, Asia Society is the leading educational organization promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships among the peoples, leaders, and institutions of Asia and the West. Asia Society Texas Center executes the global mission with a local focus, enriching and engaging the vast diversity of Houston through innovative, relevant programs in arts and culture, business and policy, education, and community outreach.