The event was held from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at University Place and attracted an estimated 10,000 visitors throughout the day, said Huina Chen, director of the festival.
The turnout was much greater than anticipated. Wendy Pan, the event’s volunteer coordinator, said they had visitors from Raleigh, Cary and Greensboro.
“It’s just amazing, we’ve had so many more guests than we expected,” Pan said. “I’ve been walking around for the whole day and I don’t think I’ve seen a single booth without a large crowd around it or a long waiting line.”
Popular booths included free crafts featuring Chinese culture, lantern decorating, demonstrations of dragon dancing and a food court featuring local Chinese restaurants.
Jihong Wu volunteered at a table where children were encouraged to decorate cookies with traditional Chinese symbols. She said she never thought so many people would show up and was glad the kids were enjoying themselves.
“(We have cookies with) a Chinese character that says ‘spring,’ one says ‘lucky,’ ‘music’ and ‘lantern,’ so (kids) have been asking about what those are meaning,” Wu said. “They are very interested and having such a good time.”
Sultan Al-Ismaili, a student at N.C. State University, traveled from Raleigh to attend the festival.
“We wanted to have a taste of the Chinese culture, especially on their New Year’s,” Al-Ismaili said. “It’s been pretty nice, but it has been mostly targeted for kids and there’s not much here to do as adults.”
