[Photo Credit: Rylie Choe]

On August 2nd, San Francisco’s historic Japantown hosted the Nihonmachi Street Festival, attracting thousands of attendees and residents to a two-day celebration of Asian American culture, music, and cuisine.

The 51st annual two-day festival featured more than 80 vendors, two outdoor stages of live entertainment, and numerous neighborhood organizations sponsoring various activities in partnership with the community.

Organizers emphasized the purpose of this year’s festival to reestablish community, and provide a platform for the generation affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Festival-goers experienced a wide array of performances such as Taiko drumming, martial arts demonstrations, and modern hip hop performances, all  aimed to showcase the rich cultural diversity in the area. 

Food at the festival played a central role, with many Asian cuisines being showcased on the day.

There were lines down the block for Japanese street food, Filipino pork, and crispy Korean fried chicken, as well as many other choices to keep people fed. 

Attendees snapped photos, smiling with friends, and taking in the summer festival vibes as they waited for their food to arrive. 

The festival crowd at the festival largely consisted of families, students, and tourists, but what actually sustained the event were the volunteers.

Volunteers from high schools in the area and from civic organizations kept the areas clean, marking just how important events like this rely on volunteers. 

More than 10,000 individuals attended the festival throughout the weekend, according to the organizers, and numerous small businesses in San Francisco reported higher sales as a result of the event. 

Some of the local musicians and artists at the event even became recognized at the local Bay Area cultural scene, due to their popularity of the artists being promoted at the festival.

“This festival is not just entertainment by itself. It’s a celebration of tradition and a way of bringing people together,” festival director Mayumi Tanaka said.

It also offered an excellent opportunity for attendees to explore San Francisco’s historic Japantown. 

“It was my first time attending, and I liked the combination of the traditional and modern performances in the festival,” Emily Daniel, 17 and a San Francisco student, said.

Beyond entertainment, the festival also partnered with San Francisco’s non-profits to promote volunteering and civic engagement, providing the youth with an opportunity to engage in community service.

The fair also provided a platform for Asian voices, showing the diversity within the SF community, as well as aiming to get rid of common stereotypes.

By welcoming individuals from all backgrounds to experience Japanese and Asian American life, the aim of the fair was to bring the community together as one. 

Furthermore, by including vendors and performers from other cultural communities, the fair created a sense of cultural harmony, and a more connected neighborhood.

For Japantown itself, the fair supports local businesses by drawing visitors, keeping the historic district alive in its recent decline. 

In this way, the Nihonmachi Street Fair can be understood not only as an event of entertainment and artistic expression, but also be seen as a cultural event that connects history, identity, and community in San Francisco.

As the festival concluded, planners already were anticipating next year’s festival to be bigger, in order to accommodate more international participants and cultural activities.