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AsianFest in Bloomington will expand beyond the Buskirk-Chumley Theater this year. Here’s what’s new and when you can join the festivities.
What’s Bloomington’s AsianFest?
The festival serves as the kickoff celebration for the 2025 Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The free event will allow attendees to watch cultural performances, participate in activities and purchase food from food trucks.
The festival, organized by the Asian Culture Center at Indiana University, began in the early part of the millennium in partnership with the City of Bloomington.
What’s new with Bloomington’s AsianFest this year?
The festival will have two portions. The Bus-Chum will, as previously, host cultural performances. But this year, organizers also have added an outdoor portion, or street block festival, on Kirkwood Avenue, between Walnut and Washington streets.
When is Bloomington’s AsianFest this year?
March 27. The outdoor festivities will begin at 5 p.m., and the performances inside the theater will begin at 7 p.m.
What performances/activities will AsianFest include this year?
Katelyn Wo, a student assistant with the Asian Culture Center, said more than 20 organizations have been involved and will provide arts and crafts and activities such as calligraphy and origami. The festival’s indoor portion will feature remarks from Mayor Kerry Thomson, a fashion show and cultural performances, including Chinese, Indian and Nepalese dance groups and a trio from the Jacobs School of Music that will perform a piece by Indian-American composer Reena Esmail.
Which food trucks will participate in AsianFest this year?
Wo said food will be provided by Mama Dukes Hawaiian Barbecue, Pinoy Garden, Döner Kebab and Planted.
What’s the purpose of the festival?
Wo said the event aims to uplift local talent and to enable the community to celebrate the diversity of the local Asian community.
Wo, a senior studying neuroscience and minoring in chemistry and public health, describes herself as Asian American or Cantonese American, as she her mother is Caucasian and her father is from Hong Kong. She said Asia has an incredible diversity, both across the continent and within each country, and the local campus has about 45 Asian groups, representing countries including Pakistan, the Philippines and Myanmar.
Asia has 48 countries, according to the CIA World Factbook, or about as many as Europe. Asian countries reach from Turkey in the west to Japan in the east — though the continent’s easternmost point actually is in Russia. The continent includes the world’s two most populous nations, India and China. In India alone, people speak more than 100 languages, though “only” 22 official ones.
Wo said she hopes the festival will bring together the campus and the rest of the community.
“I really hope people come out,” she said.
Volunteers still needed
The Asian Culture Center said last week it still was looking for volunteers for multiple shifts between 3 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. to help with set up, tear down, crowd control, photography and other tasks.
People who are interested in volunteering can go to tinyurl.com/AsianFest-volunteers.
Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@heraldt.com.