Floral Street Fair

Definitely agree with the first reviewer. I went on a Saturday afternoon at about 2 pm and the floral street fair was rather disappointing. No sign of a lion or dragon dance although it might’ve happened earlier in the day. There were one or two stands that sold lucky trinkets, but the selection was rather weak. The stage performer was singing some sort of English rock song and on the main stage was a hip hop dance performance that was mildly entertaining. The selection of food seemed to be a meat on a stick variety which is good for walking and eating, but again where’s the prawn or pork dumplings? You could easily poke those through a skewer too. But the most disappointing was the lack of flowers and lanterns for a FLORAL street fair and LANTERN festival.
I then drove down to the Chinatown golden parade festival with even less luck. Many of the streets and Chinatown freeway exits were closed and parking was virtually non-​existent. Will have to try for the golden parade in Chinatown first next year!

The is the second annual event here and my first visit. Not recommended at this point, even if you happen to be in the area. The most telling thing is that this «lantern festival» is organized by the Business Improvement District Advisory Committee. There are a bunch of businesses that are not culturally relevant in any sense like Bank of America, Spam, Sprint, and a much hyped pig race that had the crowd going for a moment and ended in like, no joke 5 seconds. People were trying to sell tickets for a $ 1 to watch this pig race which was more country fair than chinese new year, being that yesterday marks the start of the new year. The pigs would be roasted way before being entered into any kind of a hog run.
No where to found are the expected chinese dragons, cultural dance or music, firecrackers, pageant winners, or red lanterns. I was there sunday afternoon, it could be that any of these happened on Saturday or in early mornings hours, but what I saw was not representative of anything chinese or lantern related. The food booths were mexican, thai, etc. I didn’t see any with chinese food or dim sum.
The only booth that was of mild interest and some relevance was the US Postal Service that had a display of their chinese new year postage stamps that were artistic and colorful. There was a dentist booth, satellite tv, and people passing out business cards for plumbing services. It was crowded and people seemed to be having a good time. It was kind of funny, like being in a Twillight Zone espisode for a couple of ABC’s — american born chinese. Free parking readily available, lots of room for improvement to make this event what is can and should be.
2−17−08 Update
Almost gave this one star, but I reserve that for rip off places I hate.