The temperature in S.T. Morrison Park was already hitting 80 degrees when the sound of drumming started just after 1 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. The heat, however, didn’t stop hundreds from turning out for the opening of the fourth annual Coralville Asian Festival (CAF).
This year’s festival kicked off with a performance by the Soten Taiko Drummers, playing traditional and modern Japanese drum music. The group, which is part of the Japan America Society of Iowa, came to the festival from Des Moines. It’s the only touring taiko group in the state.
There would be many other performances throughout the afternoon and early evening, ranging from Chinese choirs to singers channeling Bollywood, and dancers representing traditions from China, India, Vietnam, Bali, Nepal and Tibet, including the Iowa City West High School Dragon Dance troupe and Lion Dancers from the Vietnamese American Community in Iowa. Away from the stage in S.T. Morrison Park, there was Vietnamese bingo, demonstrations of taekwondo and a variety of activities organized by the Children’s Museum of Iowa and the Midwest Chinese Academy.
The performances lasted into the early evening and were followed by an hour-long dance. After the sun went down, the festival concluded with a screening of Crazy Rich Asians.
And of course, there was plenty to eat and drink available from vendors, from traditional items such as eggrolls to the more modern fare like Korean corn dogs, as well as other favorites like tomato chutney and samosas.
The annual festival has grown considerably over the last four years. CAF board members Hai Huynh and Jennifer Nguyen, who founded the festival with Omega Dancel, recalled its first year while speaking to Little Village last week.
“Our first year as we got ready to open, there was this giant storm. It was crazy,” Huynh said. “We thought we’d have to cancel the whole thing. But we asked people to take shelter and come back after it was over. In about 20 minutes the storm cleared, and the people came out and the festivities continued.”
“It was beautiful weather for the rest of the day,” Nguyen added.
There’s no controlling the weather, of course, but the festival founders considered as many other other possible needs and likely problems as possible ahead of the one-day event.
“We tried to find the most optimal place [for the festival], where people can bike and walk and take the bus,” Huynh said. “A central location, that has restrooms available, that’s ADA-accessible. We thought about everything.”
Huynh and Nguyen came to the idea of starting a festival with different points of view. Huynh, who serves as a Coralville City Councilmember, immigrated to the United States from Vietnam. Nguyen was born and raised in western Iowa.
“Growing up, I always felt that when we went to gatherings like the Lunar New Year celebration that’s hosted by my home community in Sioux City, Iowa, it felt welcoming and it felt inclusive,” Nguyen said. “You were a part of something that made you feel safe. And that’s what I wanted to create with this festival as well.”
“I was already doing it on a smaller scale, inviting people over to my place for gatherings, and I always felt like it was a way for me to connect, make friends, new families,” she continued. “It just brought a lot of happiness to everybody. So I wanted to be able to share that and expand it more. So when I heard Hai’s vision, I thought we could do this on a bigger scale than what I was working on.”
“I think for me as an immigrant, I really miss my community,” Huynh said. “So this is one day of the year, I get to immerse myself into my community and just feel at home.”
“I’ve always dreamed of a community gathering where there would be space to showcase what the community is, what it looks like, what it feels like and how we celebrate,” Huynh said. “As a Vietnamese-American, I know that for my Asian-American folks, they also dream of that. I know that my parents dreamed of that, my siblings dreamed of that, my friends dreamed of that.”
“It’s just a matter of can we do it? Will people be interested? Will they show up?”
Even though the number of performers and vendors at the festival has increased each year, as has the number of people attending, Nguyen said, “there has been pushback.”
“What I’ve noticed is that the city of Coralville still has yet to really fully embrace the diversity of its community,” she said.
Coralville does have a diverse population, with Asians and Asian-Americans making up 9.4 percent of its residents. But the city doesn’t have the sort of celebrations for its various communities that neighboring Iowa City does, Nguyen said.
“So, having this type of festival for our community members to come out to, enjoy and engage with is important,” she said. “I think it’s profound to show how much we like to party, how much we embrace what community is, and do it in a way that brings in people from the larger community.”
“It makes people proud to say ‘I live in the city of Coralville.’”
