The Asian Coalition of Tallahassee (www.asiantlh.org |ACT), a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization, celebrated its ninth annual Asian Festival, Experience Asia Festival 2013 (EAF2013), on Saturday, October 12, 2013 between 10:00 AM and 5:30 PM at Bloxham and Lewis Parks located at the intersection of Park Avenue and Monroe Street. Tallahassee being a college town with an ACC (FSU) and MEAC (FAMU) football teams, EAF2013 was scheduled on a Saturday without a home football game. The event was free and open to public and attracted record crowds of 17,000+ people. Our featured performers came from Orlando (Matsuriza Taiko Drummers), Tampa (Philippines Performing Arts Company) and Pensacola. This year ACT had two media sponsors ABC affiliate WTXL-TV 27 HD and Tallahassee Democrat, and two media partners, WFSU-TV and WFSU-Radio. One of the main objectives of the Asian Coalition is to increase the awareness and appreciation of the diverse Asian culture and heritage among local public through cultural performances, demonstrations, and information booths. Hosting Experience Asia Festival annually allows us to achieve this objective. In addition to the cultural benefits, the Festival also promotes local merchants by gathering 70 small-business vendors of food, arts, crafts, jewelry, clothing, business services, human services, and others. The Experience Asia is the largest Asian gathering in the Big Bend area and has established itself as “The Asian Festival of the Big Bend”.
The early October climate was perfect and entertainment programs and demonstrations went as scheduled throughout the day on two separate stages. Eight WTXL-TV 27 anchors promoted the event by being the emcees. The food, fashion, arts and crafts, and service vendors saw record crowds and did brisk business. Local college and high school student volunteers helped ACT by setting up the booths, answering questions, and taking surveys. Overall it was a successful event. The Tallahassee and Leon County has embraced Asian Coalition in a big way by attending in large numbers despite the fact that there were several other events scheduled on the same day. The Mayor and First Lady of Tallahassee officially opened the Festival at noon. The survey indicated everyone is looking forward the next year’s Tenth Annual Experience Asia 2014.
For more information about our current and future activities of the Asian Coalition of Tallahassee please visit www.asiantlh.org or contact Thayumanasamy Somasundaram at [email protected] or Aurora Hansen at [email protected] or Clyde Diao at [email protected].
Photos: Nick Baldwin is a professional photographer and has been member of the ACT Board since its inception. Visit www.nickbaldwinphotography.com
