Photo gallery: Popular Utah Asian Festival celebrates diverse heritages

A feast for the senses, the Utah Asian Festival took place Saturday at the Utah State Fairpark to celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

The Utah event is the largest, longest-running Asian festival in the United States, organizers say.

The event featured 60+ traditional and contemporary performances across two stages, hands-on children’s activities, 30+ food vendors representing a wide array of culinary heritages, more than 70 community and artisan booths and more in what was expected to be the biggest festival since its founding in 1978.

The festival is entirely volunteer-run and organized as a program of the Asian Association of Utah, which serves as a community resource for Asian immigrants and refugees. Though the festival is nearing its 50-year mark, the festival is proud to note that Asian people have been an essential part of Utah history for over 150 years.

Deseret News photojournalists Brice Tucker captured the visual sights, sounds and smells of the event.

Correction: In an earlier version of this story, Hsar Wah was misidentified in the photo captions.