The 14th annual Cambodia Town Parade and Cultural Festival will return to the streets of Long Beach this weekend after two years of pandemic-induced virtual celebrations.
The celebration, scheduled for Sunday, April 3, will start with a parade through Cambodia Town and end with a festival in MacArthur Park, where there will be live dance performances, Cambodian food vendors and booths from local shops and businesses.
Long Beach has the largest concentration of Cambodian people outside of the Southeast Asian nation itself.
“We have more than 2,000 years of cultural heritage,” said Richer San, a co-chair of the parade and festival, “and we want to bring some of it to share with our Long Beach community.”
The event will start at 9 a.m. at Anaheim Street and Cherry Avenue with a meeting of interfaith leaders. Leaders from the local Christian, Muslim and Buddhist communities will begin the celebration with a blessing and a few words before the parade heads west at 10 a.m., San said.
The parade, which will include three floats and marchers, will go west on Anaheim Street until they reach Warren Avenue, San said, where MacArthur Park is. From there, around noon, the festival will begin. San said he expects at least 1,000 people to show up.
At the festival, there will be live performances of traditional Cambodian dancing. A group of Hmong dancers will also perform, he said, and a group of Cambodian Muslims will be there to share history and culture.
“The festival is to share our culture with the community,” San said. “We focus on sharing the rich culture and heritage of the Khmer community.”
There will also be 45 booths throughout MacArthur Park that will sell merchandise, including two Cambodian food vendors, Cambodia Town Food by Sophy and Udom Khmer, San said. After the live dance performances, there will be free dancing and live singing.
“Come to us to look at the culture,” San said. “We have so many things to offer.”
The festival will end at 6 p.m. PRESS TELEGRAM
