This particular Chinatown International District event - which usually occurs around the time of…read morethe Moon Festival - has been around since 2006 though I've gone here starting back in 2011. Past night markets have spanned throughout King St starting from - but not including - 7th Ave all the way down to 5th Ave, spanning outwards on 5th, 6th and Maynard to the blocks touching both Weller and Jackson Streets. This year (and several other years before that) there were no fair contents on the stretch of Maynard touching Weller. Basically, there's 6 blocks of food and merchandise vendors for night market goers to enjoy, and there's less content year after year. Logistics wise, people come and go throughout the fair, though this day was particularly crowded because of two home games in both T-Mobile Park and Lumen Field occurring within the time frame of the night market. It gets very, very crowded the closer you get to the end as certain performances are scheduled within that time. I don't mind this though, since crowds where you're shoulder to shoulder with others is what night markets in this continent are all about. As with previous years after 2018 or so, the main stage is at Hing Hay Park instead of the parking lot at 6th and King close to Jolidaze and Oasis. I actually miss having the stage at its former location, but Hing Hay Park is definitely more aesthetically calming for big performances. If you want to watch performances, you should come here early to snag a spot, or hope people leave so you can get a spot where you can see better. Food wise, there's more local Seattle (or at least WA-state native) eateries than what was in this year's nonlocally diluted Bite of Seattle: - I started off getting spicy mango takoyaki from a stand very close to Bao Box (based in Covington, WA), though both stands share the same POS system to order from. Takoyaki is standard, and the spice hits hard but much later than you think. I wish I could have tasted more mango in the mango sauce, though. - The mango coconut smoothie from Mangosteen (which used to be in Chinatown) is pure heaven! It was relatively warm this year so this drink especially hit the spot. - I also got some pandan waffles from a Seattle-based stand called Dragonfly. They sell Vietnamese waffle mixes along with the waffles of those flavors themselves. I love pandan flavor on waffles, so this was a big hitter for me as well. Entertainment wise, I'm divided on this since I'm considering years of attending this event. The lion dances from Mak Fai are always fun to see year after year, and though I missed this year's Apex Diabolo performance in person I'm sure they were really mesmerizing to watch as they always are. Honestly, I would much prefer watching the dancing competitions from The Beacon back then instead of the K-pop random dance play event this year, both of which occur as the last performance of this event. I did, however, have some fun at the variety show and got to listen to some awesome local API artists sing their hearts out; it makes me miss more of the singing that used to take up slightly more time slots on entertainment in past years. Unlike the Bite of Seattle, I'm down to come back here year after year regardless of the lack of changes with the vendors. There's a ton of local eats, merch booths are very interesting, and we still have an eclectic set of performances to boot. This event isn't something worth staying the whole duration for, but you can enjoy yourself and the crowds very easily here.

Looking for summer fun, entertainment, eats, and getting smoked out by all the grilled eats?!…read more.. come to the ID during this festival! My friend and I were eager to try all the sweet and savory eats while being entertained by the on stage pop locking / breakdancing. Be prepared for the crowds! The space is limited to a few blocks leaving little room to move about and few places to find refuge. Wonderful smells from all the eats offers temptations, whilst the smoke from the grilled eats literally 'crowds' you :0/ thankfully industrial fans were about Overall a great experience! Hopefully next festival will offer more areas to escape

This is such a lively event! It's centered on Hing Hay Park, as from11 a.m. to 4 p.m. they have…read morecultural performances every hour or so there, including the lion dance and other cool demonstrations. This coincided with the $6 food walk that surrounding restaurants participated in, although there were also vendor booths selling food in addition to crafts and other goodies lined up along S King St. The festival was busier than I expected, but I had a great time and a stuffed belly. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for next year's festival!

I give this festival four stars more because it is was a new cultural experience for me and was a…read moregreat deal of fun seeing the Dragon and Lion dances. I could see coming here every year to be tiring though. The crowds in the neighborhood is tremendous and it is a serious effort to see the performers but with persistence you can probably get some good pictures and a view at some point but it isn't easy and can get exhausting. They have a $2 food walk but so many people are waiting in line it feels very overwhelming. Despite crowds and long waits the festival was still worth while going to.

Such a great event hosted by Uwajimaya every summer! Great opportunity to grab snacks because they…read moreusually have a sale with the vendors who come out in-store and then outside with all of the booths a wonderful way to try local businesses and Japanese eats Depending on the time, they have cosplay and performances. Some fun kids games and other great things to check out! It gets pretty busy. We were in the area closer to the end of the event.

This was a spur of the moment thing for us. We went to Uwajimaya on Friday for some grocery…read moreshopping, and saw them setting up the street booths and the banner advertising the festival. So we decided to come back the next day to check it out. What a fun little festival. The whole festival is situated on only one block with about 15 or so booths, and an entertainment stage. We literally walked the whole event 4 times in 1 hour, and that included stopping to eat at several booths. My wife and I sampled the Okonomiyaki ($5), the Kalbi plate ($7 without a drink), and a vanilla shave ice with condensed milk ($5.50). The Okonomiyaki was without a doubt the most popular dish and had a line each time we walked past. I'm sure you can google what it is but it essentially looks like a yakisoba pancake with various ingredients. It has a lot of flavor and is very rich. I definitely enjoyed it, but the two of us couldn't finish one order as it was too rich. The kalbi was delicious as always-- it's hard to screw up kalbi. $7 might seem expensive but it's always expensive and at least they gave us 3 good size strips. Our only complaint was that one strip wasn't fully cooked (pink on the inside). The shave ice was good-- nothing special--- but refreshing on a hotter day. We enjoyed our time here. It's cool just people watching as the gals wearing kimonos are very pretty. Everybody was laid back, friendly, and having a great time. Do yourself a favor and stop by for some good food and enjoyment.

The best way to describe a night at upstream music fest is an art adventure in an outdoor museum…read more It seems like the majority of people I talked to only recognized One or two of the performers. But there's something magical in that mystery that leads to a serendipitous evening. Each stage was like stepping into a new world curated by a different team for a different purpose. We watched a stop motion film with live music scoring, then caught a Hawaiian guy playing solos off his ukelele, the can can showcasing their new dance routine femme fatale, and at the main stage of course humbling vibes and feel good music from Miguel. Overall pioneer square was never crowded, and the people who were here were very friendly and open to be influenced by their surroundings. The staff was well organized and prevalent. If I were to make some changes, it would probably be to have more food present or list food destinations on the map. Also, some advice for myself next year; research the artists!

I had way more fun than I thought I would at upstream!!!! It's like.. music fest and bar hopping…read moreAND eating!!! I can see this being way more popular in the coming years. Miguel headlined last night and he was amazing! I feel blessed to have seen him live and in the flesh! lol. Got in a little late right about 9:30pm when Miguel just started.. it's really easy to maneuver around/ get to and from the different venues (we rode bikes for portions of the night). And my favorite part is how intimate all the spaces are! One venue we were got drinks, on to the next venue and we got bean dip and chips, another venue we were jumping around! So happy I got to experience this.

A lively annual Japanese festival that started in 2017! It is open to the public for the Saturday…read morepacked with a variety of activities to learn about the culture. The event is suited for families, but also enjoyable for adults. Workshops and performances are generally thirty minutes to an hour long. I attended the Furoshiki Wrapping Workshop (a hands-on class wrapping cloth around various items) as well as the Dango Cooking Workshop (a session to make and eat sweet Japanese dumplings). Performances and demos include dances, music, tea ceremonies, flower arrangements, and much more. The School of TAIKO show was really fun to watch! It was also interesting to watch martial arts demonstrations, such as kendo up against naginata. In between events, you can check out the flea market, cultural booths, karaoke, exhibits, or even photo opportunities. Free WiFi is offered at the campus, and food catered for the festival is available for purchase.

Ukrainian food is in short supply so I look forward to this yearly festival. This festival is…read morerelatively new as this year will be its fourth year. It takes place in late August/early September. The next one being this weekend (Saturday). While this event is for the Ukrainian community, all are welcome. The event take up a good chunk of Crossroads Park where it is held annually. Dancing, music and family activities are some of the offerings. For me though I come here for the food. There are a bunch of vendors with similar menus, so choose the one that looks the most appealing to you. My particular favorite is to get some pork kebabs with either some plov or salad. They also have a baked goods table if you want dessert. If you are looking for something to do this weekend on the Eastside, this is a decent festival to check out. Particularly for their food offerings.

The Festival was great this year and very professionaly organized. Especially I want to express my…read moreappreciation for parking guys who worked so tirelessly and helped me to find spot to park my car whe it seems impossible. Thank you!

Wow! What a lovely day. Pack with a lot of patience because parking was tough. We arrive not that…read morelate, but ut took us a bit yo get to a lot even when we already got a map for the available parkings. Slow movement but we got there.Some stress are closed. There are lots and lots of booths. Plenty of things to see, purchase, and eat along. We had some dumplings, lactose free dole (yaaay!), and cotton candy. Everything was great! I wanted some BBQ but lines were huge!!! We lost an hour for the cotton. Candy. Kids were playing in the meantime, but I suggest to keep an eye because there's gazillions of people! It is a fair!

Salmon Days!! Always a fun time while we watch our salmon friends move through the area (and you…read morecan eat them). This is the first year I've got in many, many years and I'm glad that I did. Like any other festival that shuts down a large area, the parking is pretty crazy. I got there nice and early to find a good spot and walked about a mile. Overall good selection of vendors! Most of them were artisanal and not something you can buy from a direct-from-China shop. The food court had a lot of great options, and, of course the Kiwanis salmon BBQ. They also had a large field section with games for the kiddos and a water dog competition! There were lots of salmon going through the ladder, so that was nice to watch for awhile. Overall Salmon Days is a great festival to get out and do something a little different!

Whoever thought that the already popular Fremont Sunday Street Market could get any better...? How…read moreabout throwing in a little beer tasting and 15+ food trucks!?! Yeah, that'll do it! I've been following the "Mobile Food Truck Rodeo" since 2011 and have been more than happy with their recent developments!! No longer charging for admission, additional food trucks and a better choice of venue(s). Food trucks started rolling in about 10:00am which was about the same time my anticipation started to rise! My friend and I visit the market on a regular but hearing that there were going to add 15+ food trucks to the mix made us that much more excited! The line up consisted of a few regulars, such as Snout & Co, Street Donuts, Veraci Pizza and Tandoozy with addition to Crisp Creperie, Xplosive, Jemil's Big Easy, Grilled Cheese Experience, Wiseguy Food Truck, I Love My GFF, Jerk Station, Buns, Curry Now, Raney Bros. BBQ, Bistro Box, Street Treats, Falafel Salam, Chicarepa and Los Agaves. The food trucks provided a delicious aroma which flowed throughout the market and almost made you forget that it was raining! The indoor market, including a few food trucks provided a little shelter but Tandoozy was sweet enough to provide two covered tables for our convenience! Having tried a little something from most of the food trucks, we found ourselves returning to the wonderful Tandoozy for their "Everything Naan"! My friend lloves it with "everything" which includes rice, chicken and chutney but I'd be satisfied with just a simple serving of their Naan drenched in their olive oil, garlic and cilantro sauce! YUM! A few trucks provided "specials" just for the event and we just had to try "The Bomb" from the Grilled Cheese Experience. "The Bomb" was a buttery grilled cheese sandwich stuffed with oxtail and mac n cheese. A little rich and heavy for our pallets but knew we were going to walk it off with a stroll through the market!

Traditionally, gatherings of food trucks are not held in December. That's why I was excited to hear…read moreabout The Winter Feast & Beer Festival. I am often at Fremont Sunday Market anywhere from one to three times a month. Having food trucks there is just an additional incentive for me. The weather today was much better than I expected. I was there for 3 hours or so and it didn't rain very hard. It was a little cold and the heaters that were added a few weeks ago were absolutely perfect for today. You could order your food from trucks, then wait under the heaters to keep warm. It was pretty sweet. The Red Door Ale House had tasters of beers. It was nice that we were able to take our food truck food inside to sit down, keep warm, watch the ballgame, and chill out. Unfortunately, the jacket I had my eye on was not there today but I did talk to the vendor and hope I can buy it next week. For those of you who know me, you know I'm into food trucks. Today, I visited Street Donuts for their first return to Seattle since September. They had a seasonal peppermint and chocolate flavor but my heart belongs to cinnamon and caramel. Fantastic as usual! The Bistro Box was in the house with Arancini (fried risotto balls). They were fried crisp and full of creamy mushroom risotto. At $6.00 for 2 balls - I was totally full! Jemil's Big Easy brought peach cobbler to the party and I was all in! I wasn't sure how an outdoor event in December would go but I think the event had a little something for everyone - food trucks, shopping, and beer. What more could you ask for?