Queens’ MarketPlace Asian Fest 2016

Queens’ MarketPlace courtesy photo.

The Queens’ MarketPlace will present a public celebration to kick off the Year of the Monkey,m on Friday, Feb. 5.

Asian Fest is scheduled ahead of Saturday’s 23^rd Annual Waimea Heritage Cherry Blossom Festival and the Chinese New Year on Monday.

Music, cuisine, and customs of China, Japan, Okinawa, Philippines, Thailand and other Asian cultures will be shared during the free evening festival.

Ryukyukoku Matsuri Daiko will kick off the evening with its combination of traditional Eisa and Karate forms with contemporary music and movement. RMD is performed by chapters across Hawai’i and the rest of the world.

Flashy, upbeat Chinese Lion Dancers will also perform through the MarketPlace, taking acrobatic feats and leaps from door-to-door. Small donations in red envelops, called lycee, can be fed to the lion to bring good fortune in the year ahead.

Fourteen booths with various food samples will set up, including Charley’s Thai Cuisine, Hilton Waikoloa Village, Ippy’s Hawaiian BBQ, Island Gourmets Markets, Lemongrass Express, Marble Slab Creamery, along with Paradise Pizza & Grill,  Sansei Seafood, Steak and Sushi Bar, Starbucks, Sushi Shiono’s, Waikoloa Beach Marriott, Roy’s Waikoloa, Mai Grille, Tropics Ale House, and Dairy Queen.

Asian Fest is a free event put on by Queens’ MarketPlace and its businesses as a way to celebrate the start of the new lunar year.

Asian Fest Entertainment Schedule:

• 5 p.m.: Ryukyukoku Matsuri Daiko
• 5:55 p.m.: Hawaii Lion Dance Association
• 6:30 p.m.: Kona Daifukuji Taiko
• 7 p.m.: Visayan Dance Group, Filipino Dancers from University of Hawai’i at Hilo
• 7:20 p.m.: Lion Dance begins at Island Gourmet Markets and proceeds door to door
• 7:30 p.m.: Taishoji Taiko