I’ve always wanted to check out the Lotus Festival way the hell over there in Echo Park but…sigh, so far away. However, since this year’s festival is highlighting the P.I., aka the Philippines, maybe I will drag my lazy butt over there once and for all to check out the festivities and show my peeps some sisterly love.
Every year since 1972, over 100,000 Angelenos converge on Echo Park to take part in this summertime must-do, which coincides with the blooming of the lotus flowers in Echo Park and celebrates Asian and Pacific Island cultures with music, food, dancing and art.
And no wonder this Asian block party always garners such a huge turnout. It has an international marketplace, which offers Asian and Pacific Islander arts and crafts for sale, such as clothing, jewelry, incense, hand-made crafts, and artwork. The dragon boat races on the lake are always fun to watch. And who can forget the food booths where you can enjoy exotic delicacies…except dinuguan. I don’t know if anyone will be serving that there but, trust me, steer clear of it.
And at 9pm on Saturday, the festivities will climax with a big bang of fireworks over the lake backed up by Japanese Taiko drummers. Sexy!
EVENT: Saturday, July 8 from 12-9pm ~ Sunday, July 9th from 12-8pm
Glendale Boulevard & Park Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90026
Admission: Free
You deliver! Thanks, Caroline.
No problem, Hollywood. Are you going?
It’s a pretty cool thing to see those lotuses – here are my pics from last year
s bloom.
(BTW, your pic above is of water lilies, not lotuses, FYI.)
Zoinks! Thanks for the heads-up. There.
FYI – the fireworks are SATURDAY night, around 8-9pm. I know because I’ve lived a block from Echo Park for seven years, and we always go up on the roof to check them out. It’s very cool and well worth checking out.
(I even called the LA Parks department to double check – there are NO fireworks on Sunday…only on Saturday !!)
Thanks, Mr. Henderson. That makes more sense.
[checks calendar] Hmmm. It could happen. Maybe Saturday.
It’s very nice. The weather’s great. There are lots of people, lots of things to see and do. The only drawback is the fact that the Lotus Blossums haven’t really arrived yet. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lotus8jul08,1,4204906,print.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=1&cset=true
Well, they could call it the Lotus 1-2-3 Festival. What happened to that software anyway?