Utah Asian Festival: Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Cultures

The Utah Asian Festival is an annual, one-day celebration of Utah’s Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) cultures. Held yearly on the first Saturday of June at the Utah State Fairpark in Salt Lake City, the festival attracts over 15,000 attendees. While the specific events have changed over time, the festival consistently features an array of performances, children's arts and crafts, various vendors, and an abundance of food options.

The Utah Asian Festival originated in 1978 as a fundraiser for the Asian Association of Utah (AAU). Founded just a year earlier in 1977 by Utah's Asian American community, the AAU was initially established to help resettle Vietnamese refugees. Thanks to the festival's immediate success in fundraising and its growing popularity among Utahns, the AAU continues to host the annual event today.

For the first 25 years, the Utah Asian Festival was held at the Salt Palace Convention Center in downtown Salt Lake City. In 2002, South Town Expo Center (now Mountain American Exposition Center) in Sandy, Utah became the event’s new venue. Since 2022, the festival has been held at the Utah State Fairpark in Salt Lake City. The current venue is a great place for their evergrowing crowd and festival events.

Miss Asia of Utah was part of the Utah Asian Festival starting in 1987 until 2016. The contestants showcased their cultural heritage through three different categories: Beauty, Elegance, and Talent. The runner-ups and crowned Miss Asia of Utah were awarded scholarships.

The primary goals of the Utah Asian Festival are to unite Utah’s Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities and to educate the public about their cultures and traditions. This is achieved through an evolving array of events, competitions, exhibits, and, of course, food. Since 1978, the festival has showcased everything from cooking competitions, cultural fashion shows, and traditional wedding and tea ceremonies to a cosplay parade, cultural plays, and even live zoo animals corresponding to the Chinese zodiac.

Today, the Utah Asian Festival offers a rich array of entertainment on two stages–one inside and the other outside–with a continuously rotating schedule of dancers, musicians, martial artists, and other cultural performers. The line-up celebrates global popular culture with dedicated K-pop and Bollywood hours featuring groups dancing to a variety of hit songs. Additionally, the festival hosts over 70 booths, which connect attendees with local artisans, cultural and educational organizations, Asian-owned businesses, community nonprofits, and a mini-health fair.

Since the festival’s beginning, food has been a central attraction alongside the cultural performances. Some years the festival had cooking competitions. Today, the festival hosts over 30 food vendors offering a wide variety of Asian cuisines. The selection includes popular dishes like Korean fried chicken and kimbap, Indian curries, Filipino pancit, and refreshing treats such as boba and mango sticky rice. 

The Utah Asian Festival is powered entirely by a dedicated all-volunteer group of community members who are passionate about sharing AAPI cultures and traditions. These volunteers meticulously plan, implement, and manage every aspect of the festival. Recognized as the biggest Asian festival west of the Mississippi, the event is a vibrant celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander cultures and traditions. The festival warmly invites everyone to take part in this celebration—to learn, enjoy, and share these special moments with the entire community.

From 2023 to 2025, the Utah Historical Society (UHS) hosted over thirty Scan-and-Share events across Utah. During these events, community members were invited to digitize their personal photos and share their stories, effectively preserving their individual histories. UHS hosted one of these successful events specifically at the Utah Asian Festival in the spring of 2023.

To view more digital items from this project, please visit the online collection.