The second annual Orem Asian Festival lands at The Orchard at University Place on Saturday, May 9, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Organized by the Utah Chinese Association, the free event features booths, cultural performances, food, and family activities celebrating Asian cultures across the region.
That's the announcement. The interesting part is what the festival represents.
Why This Festival Exists at All
Utah Valley is changing demographically faster than most people who live here realize. The population of Utah County has grown by roughly 40% in the past decade, and that growth isn't uniformly from the same backgrounds as the historically-dominant LDS communities. Provo and Orem both have growing populations of Asian-American residents — Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Filipino, Indian — drawn by tech employment, BYU and UVU recruiting from Asia, and the spillover effects of Salt Lake's diversification.
Most of those communities have been quietly building infrastructure for years: temples, churches, restaurants, grocery stores, language schools, professional networks. What was missing was the public-facing moment — the event where the broader community gets invited in. The 2025 inaugural festival was that moment. The 2026 return is the signal that it's becoming a tradition.
This matters because Utah Valley has historically not had many events that did this work. The Freedom Festival around July 4th, the Hope of America performance at the Marriott Center, various LDS-connected cultural events — these are real and well-attended, but they reflect a fairly narrow slice of the actual community. An Asian Festival at University Place is something different. It's a Saturday afternoon in Orem where Mandarin gets spoken on stage and lion dancers perform in front of Dillard's.
What to Expect
The format mirrors most cultural festivals: a circuit of booths along one side of The Orchard's outdoor pedestrian space, a performance stage with rotating acts, and food vendors set up around the perimeter. Past programming has featured:
- Lion and dragon dance performances
- Traditional music and instrument demos
- Calligraphy and origami booths
- Tea ceremony demonstrations
- Food from Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, and other regional cuisines
- Information booths from Asian-American organizations and businesses in Utah
The 11 a.m.–2 p.m. window is short — three hours — so plan to arrive on the earlier end if you want time to circulate. Parking is at University Place's main lots, free.
What It Says About Where Provo and Orem Are Going
Cultural events like this are useful as a temperature check. A first-year festival can be a one-off. A second-year festival with the same organizers, expanded programming, and a permanent venue is the beginning of something more durable. If the trend continues, Utah Valley over the next decade will likely have a more diverse public-event calendar than the one many longtime residents grew up with. Korean, Indian, and Latino-led festivals already exist in pockets; pulling them into year-after-year programming at venues like University Place is what makes them feel like a permanent part of the community rather than a special occasion.
For families with kids, for BYU and UVU international students who don't always see their cultures represented in mainstream Provo programming, and for anyone interested in what Utah Valley is actually becoming, this is worth a Saturday afternoon.
Practical Details
- Date: Saturday, May 9, 2026
- Time: 11 a.m.–2 p.m.
- Location: The Orchard at University Place, 575 E. University Parkway, Orem
- Cost: Free
- Organizer: Utah Chinese Association