The actual date for 2009, based on the lunar calendar, is actually 3rd October, so this celebration is early. It won't stop the crowd though, believe me.
The stalls etc are probably not that different from other street festivals, but the main reason for coming, I reckon is because it's a chance to celebrate our culture and traditions. The parents like it for that, and the children, well it's fun and there are rides and lots of colour.
Make sure you check out all the stalls, one of my favourites (don't know if they'll be there this year) is a vegetarian stall run by a local Buddhist temple to raise funds - you'll have to eat here, it's for a good cause and the food is great. They started to do this years ago, but underestimated the crowd so badly that they ran out of food by 2pm! They should know what to expect now.
Between noon and 4pm are the craziest times where you can barely move up or down John street.
Here's a few of my recommendations:
- a great gang of young Viet-Australians who will promote their Vietlish project at the festival
- SBS radio's Vietnamese program will be broadcasting live from 7pm. I'm always amazed by how many people come out to watch an 'audio' based program
- Buy/eat a moon cake (actually 1/8th of a moon cake - they're rich)
Cabramatta hosts Australia's largest Moon Festival celebration, which is the second most popular in the Asian calendar. It's run by the council and is called, typically frankly, Cabramatta Moon Festival.
Sadly I'll have to miss Moon Festival this year for a whole range of reasons including to spend a day with my partner before he flies off later today to speak at the Australian Book Association's bookseller's conference in Brisbane.
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