The Ottawa Asian Fest recently hosted a night market in Chinatown for the first time, transforming an empty parking lot beside the Somerset Street gateway arch into a vibrant festival of food and entertainment over the Sept. 9-11 weekend.
Sponsored by Chatime Canada and several local businesses, the event featured various Asian food vendors and performers from across Ontario. The night market had previously been hosted at Lansdowne Park.
According to OAF project coordinator Simon Huang, as many as 25,000 visitors came to the night market over its three-day run. Hosting the event in Chinatown gave the event a more authentic feel, Huang said, even if the available space was much smaller than Lansdowne Park.
“When I arrived,” said Carleton University student Monica Bulos, “I thought it was going to be a lot bigger, like Toronto, but it was pretty small, and everything was kind of bunched together.”
In the future, Huang said organizers hope to find a permanent location for the night market and are considering Chinatown as a possibility.
He said that next year, his organization hopes to get more involvement from local businesses and put booths along the sides of Somerset Street instead of the parking lot.
Vincent Lau, CEO of bubble tea franchise Chatime Ontario, said the festival would be a great way to get involved in the community and show people their products.
“You get a chance to reach out to customers you normally wouldn’t see inside your store, so I think it’s a great way to get some more exposure and get in front of the community,” Lau said.
“As an Asian Canadian myself, it’s definitely great to see the kind of focus placed on the cultural products we have to offer.”