AsiaTown is getting ready to shut down the street and fire up the grills. The Cleveland Asian Festival returns to the neighborhood on May 16 and May 17, 2026, taking over Payne Avenue and East 27th Street for two days of food, performances and shopping, all centered around Asia Plaza. The free event is promising bigger food choices, more vendors and a beefed-up entertainment lineup, all while spotlighting neighborhood restaurants and small businesses with family-friendly programming across two stages.
The festival runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. both days and is free to attend. According to the Cleveland Asian Festival, organizers will run complimentary shuttle buses and offer free parking at Cleveland State University lots near the intersection of East 24th Street and Payne Avenue to help handle the expected crowds.
Roughly 35 food offerings are on deck this year, with vendors serving Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Nepalese and Himalayan dishes, plus an expanded lineup of boba teas, Asian pastries and specialty desserts, as reported by Cleveland.com. The World Marketplace will stock handcrafted goods, bonsai plants, and anime and pop-culture merchandise, and organizers told the outlet that about 90% of vendors hail from Northeast Ohio.
Performances and demonstrations
Entertainment will be spread across two performance tents and a main stage, with martial arts demonstrations, cultural dance groups and musical acts cycling through all weekend. The festival schedule also lists a Saturday sword demonstration presented by the Silk Road Collective, a Colors of Asia fashion show and an A-pop showcase that brings K-pop, J-pop and C-pop dance teams together, per the Cleveland Asian Festival.
Competitions, cosplay and people's choice
For anyone who thinks they can eat with the pros, the weekend will feature an egg-roll eating contest sponsored by Li Wah Restaurant, with a $10 entry fee. The rules are simple and brutal: contestants must finish 10 egg rolls. A judged Asian food competition will also return, according to Cleveland.com. On Sunday afternoon, the Cosplay Showcase takes over for pre-registered participants, and attendees can vote for a people's-choice winner via a QR code while on-site.
Getting there and tips
The festival will be centered at Asia Plaza (2999 Payne Ave.) and will convert East 27th Street and Payne Avenue into a food-truck lane, with the main food court set up in the large Asia Plaza lot. Both the Cleveland City Council event listing and AsiaTown neighborhood guides recommend using the festival shuttles or public transit, since parking near the plaza fills up quickly on busy festival days.
Now in its 17th year, the Cleveland Asian Festival has grown into a major spring draw for the city, pulling food, culture and commerce into one weekend and giving a critical spotlight to the neighborhood's small businesses. Visitors who want to skip the longest lines should plan to arrive early, bring small bills for vendors, and keep an eye on local listings for the final performance schedule and vendor map as the weekend approaches.
