Cleveland Asian Festival (CAF) returns to AsiaTown Saturday, May 20 and Sunday, May 21 with more than 120 local food vendors and 30 performers for a fully-immersive experience in Asian culture, food, and entertainment.

The festival’s organizers realize that most festival goers aren’t thinking about the waste they create at events like this. It is a priority for the organizers, however.

Since it first began more than 10 years ago, CAF staff have tried to be as green as possible—encouraging recycling. But it has never been monitored.

This year, CAF will be a Near Zero Waste event—meaning organizers are attempting to reduce, reuse, and recycle waste at the event and minimize waste going into landfill.

To get to Near Zero Ware, organizers have brought in the Green Team to promote sustainable practices by keeping compost and recycling streams clean during the festival.

This year’s CAF will have four compost and recycling stations throughout AsiaTown, and hands-on training for the volunteers who will monitor the stations and assist guests in throwing their waste into the correct receptacles.

CAF partnered with Rust Belt Riders to educate volunteers about recycling and composting“Recycling either becomes trash or gets contaminated at most festivals,” says Siu Yan Scott, co-leader of the newly established CAF Green Team. “Regular recycling bins just aren’t effective anymore. There are many instances where trash and recycling bins look exactly the same.”

Scott and Joyce Ng are leading the Green Team, ensuring recyclables go to the right place and composting is done properly. “Green Teams are important because they create awareness about composting and reducing waste,” says Scott. “We hope to change the way we think about waste at festivals and big events.”

While Scott can’t attend the festival this year, Ng will monitor food-dense areas to avoid compost and recycling contamination, adding that CAF volunteers may have an idea of what composting is, but it can be hard to tell what’s recyclable and what’s not.

In fact, CAF partnered with Rust Belt Riders to educate volunteers about recycling and composting. A worker-owned cooperative, Rust Belt Riders provides people, organizations, and businesses with a composting solution for food waste.

The organization will lead a 30-minute composting seminar, and produce a video, to educate the volunteers on what can be recycled. Compost volunteers are required to attend or watch the seminar before working at CAF. Additionally, Green Team volunteers must arrive 15 minutes before their shifts, so Ng can provide hands-on training.

At CAF, Green Team volunteers will monitor four compost bins and four recycling bins near popular dining areas. Ng will monitor each volunteer station to ensure compost and recycling guidelines are upheld.

“We’d love to be a ‘Zero Waste Event’ but it’s nearly impossible to achieve that,” she says. “So “We’re making the event as sustainable as we can.”

Although sustainability is a top priority, promoting Asian food, culture, and tradition is what the event is all about, Ng says, and visitors are in for plenty of options.

This year, half of the food vendors will operate out of food trucks and the other half will vend in the food court on Payne Avenue. CAF has hosted roughly 100 vendors at past festivals; this year there will be more than 120 vendors.

Vendors include Koko Bakery, Ball Ball Waffle, Siam Café and Eastlands Foods—all of which will provide free samples. A few popular Asian treats that will be offered include chicken chips, sweet buns, wontons and bubble tea.

Ball Ball Waffle at the Cleveland Asian Festival“You can get food from most of these vendors all year-round, not just at the festival,” says Lisa Wong, CAF co-founder. “This is just a sampling of the restaurants and cafes that serve AsiaTown.”

Once guests get their food, they can take it to the JACK Stage on Payne Avenue and East 27th Street, or Cleveland Foundation Stage on Payne and East 30th Street, to enjoy authentic cultural performances. Although there are some returning performers, CAF is straying from the usual schedule this year to keep things fresh.

“We’re not having the Colors of Asia Fashion Show this year—we wanted to do something different because the show relied on volunteers having their own attire and it was becoming the same people each year,” says Wong. “So, we’re just going to focus on the volunteers, and we’re going to do a trivia challenge on Asian culture.”

While CAF is shaking things up a bit performance-wise, it will continue to host the popular Asian Pop Cover Dance Competition. Six dance teams will compete for cash prizes on the JACK Stage on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. There will be a dance encore on Sunday at 4:30, featuring the competition winners and invitational dancer groups.

The Kwan Family Lion Dancers will take the JACK Stage again this year at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday.

On the Cleveland Foundation Stage, festival goers can watch martial arts displays and authentic Asian dance performances. Click here for a list of performers on both stages.

“I always look forward to the food and performers CAF has to offer,” says Scott. “The festival is rich with cultural food and performances that aren’t always accessible in Northeast Ohio.”

Volunteer applications will be accepted until the festival begins on Saturday, May 20.

Free Parking is available at Cleveland State University near the Wolstein Center.