9th Annual Knox Asian Festival
HISTORY
What’s Happening in 2022
The 9th Knoxville Asian Festival is going to be on August 28th, at the World’s Fair Park from 10 AM till 6 PM. We also have Knox Asian Film Festival on Aug 27th at Central Cinema.

The Asian Cultural Parade starts at 10 AM at the water fountain on the park lawn and ends at 10:30 AM at the Amphitheater stage. Our new project this year is to sing “We are the World” after the parade. Clayton-Bradley Academy in Maryville will bring a student Orchestra.
Performances
We are especially proud of the featured performance art that includes traditional Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, and Philippine dance & music.
For the first time, we will have traditional Indonesian Music: Angklung, which is one of the most famous instruments in Indonesia. It is made up of a number of bamboo tubes fixed on a bamboo frame.
We also showcase various martial arts demonstrations, Thailand Traditional Dancers from Washington DC, K-Pop and J-Pop performances, Kimono Show, a bonsai exhibition, a cosplay contest, a Japanese tea ceremony, and the Japanese drum group, Taiko Drum, from Disney World, and Korean Fan Dancers from GA. You can learn a Japanese summer dance. Many of our artists will travel to Knoxville from all over the country and from various Asian countries to participate in this year’s festival. 1,250 seats will be available under the Amphitheater tent for the big stage performances.
Education
The Asian Festival also includes a strong educational component. We recently implemented “Asian World,” where visitors travel through various booths that are named after Asian cultural interactive activities and feature traditional foods and art for each one. Children and adults will receive a stamp on their festival passports for each cultural booth visited. Everyone is encouraged to visit all cultural booths to learn about the diversity of cultural traditions.
Asian Film Festival
Another new project this year is the Asian Film Festival at Central Cinema on August 27th. We will show:
1. The documentary Far East Deep South, which zooms in on the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act and its profound impact on generations. It’s an eye-opening film.
2. Taiwan Documentary Pakadavai, in which you can learn about Taiwan tribes.
3. Rashomon, the first Japanese film to receive a significant international reception
4. Memories of Murder, a 2003 South Korean crime thriller film co-written and directed by Bong Joon-ho.
5. The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, a documentary about Studio Ghibli.
Check the Central Cinema website for more info: https://centralcinema865.com/production/asian-film-festival-2022/


Order T-Shirt of Winning 2022 Poster Design
Congrats to Jamie Matsuura, winner of this year’s poster contest! T-shirts featuring the design are $20 and can be ordered online now, or at the festival on August 28th.
Prohibited Items & Rules
- No motorized vehicles or scooters (unless necessary for persons with disabilities)
- No picnic supplies or coolers
- No outside food/beverage or alcohol
- No skateboards, bicycles, skates, skate shoes
- No tents, canopies
- No firearms, laser pointing devices or weapons of any kind
- No remote-controlled vehicles or aircrafts, including drones
- No stickers
- No soliciting
- No unauthorized vendors will be allowed
All attendees and their bags/belongings are subject to search and prohibited items will be removed at the discretion of security staff.