Night It Up!

Night It Up is a nighttime festival that occurs once a year at the Markham Civic Centre (in May, if I remember correctly). The draw is that it’s an Asian festival with several attractions ranging from food stands, games, entertainment and even some outdoor volleyball and activities.
To start off, there is a ton of selection of food here. It ranges from desserts to meats. You’re bound to find something that appeals to you. And honestly, a lot of the prices aren’t half bad. This review started out well, right? So it’s bound to end well too, right? Nope.
If you live even remotely close to the Markham Civic Centre, walk. There’s a ton of lighting around the area so no fears there. Parking is atrocious though. They don’t let you park in the nearby business parking lots and the No Frills across the street doesn’t let you go there either. This means you’re stuck finding one of the random parking lots in the (non-​direct) area or parking on the road. Some of the areas aren’t even well lit. If this weren’t enough to get you started, the volunteers are absolutely useless. The first time I went, I honestly had no idea where I was suppose to park and… they didn’t seem to know either. There’s a lot of them too, but for seemingly no reason. Volunteers outside of the Civic Centre don’t do anything but stand there and look pretty… so they’re likely only there just to get free volunteer hours (doesn’t get much easier than that, does it?).
If you are planning to go to Night It Up, go as early as possible. It gets extremely crowded a few hours into opening. How crowded? Lines are stupidly long and you REALLY have to struggle to find a way to get through people. In addition, lines stem outward from the stands, so lines tend to hit other lines or block people off who are trying to walk through. People at these stands simply don’t have a way to keep people organized, though some clearly try. There’s almost no room to walk when you’re wondering around. They really need to either get more space for the event or have less attractions. Due to the massive amount of cramming, there’s no real place to sit and eat whatever you get to eat. At one end, there’s a large stage set up with live entertainment, usually dancing or singing with a combination of loud music. It’s not really all that impressive and if you need to pass by there, it’s way too loud. I don’t think they need it so loud that the sound carries from one end to the other.
There are enough garbage cans to keep the grounds relatively clean and the lighting’s good enough (at night) that you can see where you’re going. So there’s a few pluses.
Another major drawback is the smell. There’s commonly at least one stand that sells «stinky tofu». As the name suggest, it smells. A lot. Last year, they put that particular stand near the middle of all the area and the smell really carries. It’s pretty unbearable unless you’re a fan of it yourself.
Night It Up has a lot of draw to it because of the food they sell and some of the attractions they have but outside of maybe a bunch of teenagers wanting to get together for a fun night out, I can’t find a reason to want to actually be there. If the food is what you want, you can always whatever you’re looking for, somewhere else.

I only quickly got to see Night It Up for a few minutes just as it was opening, and being my first time seeing the festival for myself it was pretty incredible. A massive volleyball tournament was taking place all morning, and the skill level of all the team both young and old seemed to be top shelf. I did notice that all the teams were of asian heritage, so I wasn’t sure if this was exclusive or not, that said, if there was an opportunity to jump on a team next year I totally would.
Night It Up! is held at the Markham Civic Centre (the parking lots in front of the Flato Markham Theatre to be precise). There did appear to be a ton of food vendors there and my only regret was that being there as early as I was to set up as a vendor meant that none of the food was available quite yet. That said, I’ve not marked off squid lollypops and a few other items for my food-​bucketlist next year when I go.
As I understand it, the festival is cash only and it does get crowded so best to go prepared and go early to help avoid the crazy line-​ups.
Looking forward to giving NIU another try next year and eating all the food (then I can give a much more specific review of my experiences). Also of note, while this festival does occur in a giant parking lot, it does take up essentially all the parking, so good luck in finding a spot even if you’re a vendor. Pro-​tip, take a cab here if you can swing it
Eatcrest Out!

We come here once every year. But every year I feel older and older coming back. Full of kids… super loud… so hot… pungent smells… long lineups.
I usually order a Jap fried tofu dish but didn’t see it. So after all the walking around for nothing, all I got was chatime. Course, we were also very full from eating dinner so we no longer had the appetite for something big. Tried a bit of the oreo shaved ice japanese dessert (Kakigori). That was nice but melted rather quickly due to the hot temperature.
I couldn’t stand the performers. Either they were too loud (I thought my heart rate was escalating as the music kept pumping) or just destroying my favourite songs. Free entertainment is wonderful. However, auditions should be mandatory. No one really wants to be covering their ears almost the entire time.
Was really lucky this year and found parking nearby.

Everyone covered most of the areas that need to be reviewed like the mass of crowds and extremely pungent aroma of stinky tofu. What needs to be improved is the water stations for washing your hands. There was no water in all of them. That is not acceptable. Its 2015 not 1915. I bet eve in 1915 they had water available for hand washing in their festivals. 1 star off for no water. That stinky tofu… Im pretty use to it as I been coming to this festival for years but it still burns the nostrils. 1 star off for smelly air. 3 stars ***
Best thing I ate was the matcha cookie with ice cream. It needed way more ice cream but the matcha cookie was delicious. Lamb sticks are always a solid choice. Dont get the taiwanese oyster omlette. TOTAL RIP OFF. Its mixed with starch and taste like eating gooey globs of goo.

Been coming to this event for a few years now.
As per usual, food is always ridiculously expensive and I’ve found that many stores undercook their food to deal with the long lineups. which is totally unsafe and uncool.
However, I still tend to find myself coming back for the «experience» of squishing among sweaty bodies and inhaling the questionable odours of stinky tofu. They never fail to provide this free game called «avoid the lava» aka dodging littered skewers, tissues, and fallen foods on the floor and let’s just talk about how when the wind blows, all the fumes, dust, and burnt charcoal pieces cause an outbreak of coughing fits.
Now that all the cons are out in the open, I can reveal the reason why I’m still motivated to come back every year. It’s because my inner-​foodie just can’t resist checking out the annual showcase of innovative food ideas, even if I can’t afford to try them all! Progressively coming out with better, more modern, and more interesting gimmicks, the vendors are changing with the times and have really stepped up their game this year. Having just come back from a trip to Hong Kong, I liked that there were a lot of snacks resembling what’s currently popular over there (eg: ice cream egg waffles, matcha flavoured options, a surplus of bubbletea options, etc.).
So even though I knowingly get ripped off whenever I make a purchase from this event, I still feel compelled to come. And realistically, I probably will come again next year.

Came back here for the second time in 3 years. Found that many vendors have changed, most notable absence in the 2015 edition is Papa Chang’s (guess they‘re big time already now). Most notable addition is the absolute overabundance of bubble tea chains (Chatime, Cha Me Cha, Formocha, Sharetea, etc etc) along with stinky tofus — seriously guys, FOUR vendors selling stinky tofu is NOT a good idea because basically 75% of your entire festival smells like fart. Remember that stinky tofu is an ACQUIRED TASTE.
Best surprise is the Mala Express stand, wonderfully spicy but still flavourful, and not a gigantic rip-​off as I feared. BeaverTails is also there but somehow more quiet than usual. Worst place is the Yakisoba Fun, I sincerely hope these guys do not come back as the whole package of tiny (4-​inch) bun, FLAVOURLESS dog, and boring yakisoba had a disconnected feel and all for $ 8. EIGHT BUCKS! Awful.
Ambience is loud and fun, I’ve never seen more muscular bros in tight shirts with their heavily dolled-​up girlfriends in one spot. If you’re over 25, this place will make you feel old FAST, but perhaps that’s part of the fun. Awful entertainment, mostly good food, and LOUD NOISES! Most likely will return, it’s quite fun in short bursts.
Protip: Check out the organizer’s website to find authorized parking spots to avoid getting ticketed. It’s worth it, as parking enforcement is out in full force and salivating over the tons of tickets that they hand out (I saw ‘em doing this in front of me and their delight was palpable).

Night it up is the prime time for a teenager to get with their friends, stay out late (for a high school kid. man, I thought I was so cool) and stuff themselves with delicious Asian food after begging their parents for money. It was my favourite time of the year.
However, as a fully grown semi-​mature adult, it is just… meh. The only reason I’d wanna go is to keep my tradition of going every year, even if I don’t really have a craving or want of anything they offer. The worst part of NIU is always the performers and music– free entertainment but 90% of the performers seem to have never touched an instrument in their life or so tone deaf to the point where it seems like i, myself is going deaf. I cannot stress the amount of times I had to bite down my tongue to resist screaming «SHUT UP» at the stage… NIU, can you please evaluate if anyone actually CAN perform before hiring them?!
My biggest piece of advice is going on the last day. Loads of parking (no frills, how many times have you threatened to tow my car away? yeah, yeah. BYE), tons of space to walk compared to Friday (on Friday, all I can smell is smelly tofu, bbq and BO) and most of the food is on clearance and almost 50% cheaper than the selling price on Friday. My favourite booth every year is always the Osaka authentic takoyaki. DON’T GET ANY OTHER TAKOYAKI! My boyfriend made a mistake of buying from another vendor due to a short line and UGH, it doesn’t even compare to osaka’s crispy and soft texture that’s packed with flavour. I also enjoy the roasted corn and the squid. On Friday, I got one stick of 1 piece of tentacles for $ 5, and Sunday I got 2 sticks of 4 pieces for $ 6. It really makes a big difference in price. I don’t really venture out into any of the overpriced vendors because half the places have stores and the other half is ridiculously overpriced. (Drink a fruit from the fruit booth is $ 10 per juice from a watermelon/​pineapple… are you kidding me?)
Of course I always end up going again and again every year, but now I know… Sundays are the day to go– less annoying kids (who brings a baby or strollers to this?!), cheaper food and less chance of seeing every single person from Markham that you know.

Went there around 9.30pm, after dinner, with the kids. We decided to park at the No Frills Plaza, across the road. You aren’t supposed to park there, there’s big signs saying you’ll get a ticket or be towed. I can understand that during the daytime but I think they let it slide at night.
When we walked up, we could already smell the stinky tofu, absolutely disgusting. There were loads of people already there. This year seemed busier than last, as the event gets more and more popular. There are lots of food and drink stalls, basically. Food seems a bit cheaper, lots of items starting from $ 4/​$ 5. I remember things starting from $ ⁷⁄₈. Nothing that’s really great, what do you expect from a make shift street stall? There are a few stalls selling overpriced toys, facial products, cuddly toys etc
I would recommend people go to experience the atmosphere but it’s a disaster waiting to happen. Too many people, if anything went wrong there would be loads of injuries. People are either stood in a long line up for foods or just stood around. You can’t manouve to get around anywhere. Luckily, I’m not your typical 90lb, 5 ft Asian woman, and can muscle a way through the crowds. We went around the stalls once, everybody got some food and drinks, from non-​busy vendors, and we left. Not too confident about leading 3 kids to safety, should anything happen here.

Yesterday night was a hot mess. Line ups were ridiculous. Some vendors didn’t have a proper line up system and you don’t know where the line goes. Went to try the ramen burger and the deep fried squid. Lines were too much to handle, and place was jam packed. Gotta get outta there quick. Ramen burger was alright. Would have been better if the ramen was crispy… but the noodles were falling apart. Wish they took their time to fry the ramen noodles. The deep fried squid was also alright. I should have gotten the grilled squid from last time… but I noticed that the grilled squid got smaller this year.
Not worth the time to line up. It’s good to experience it at night but I still would rather go early in the afternoon to avoid ridiculous lines and loud people everywhere.

It was too small a space with lots and lots of people, long lines and sub par food.
I grew up in Vancouver on Richmond and Chinatown Night Market– they had a variety of food, vendors selling wares, and events. This night market in comparison is almost exclusively food, with some stalls with high school carnival styled games.
There were unreasonably long lines for food that really wasn’t anything more spectacular than what you get in Pacific Mall or Toronto’s Chinatown. In fact it seems that there are only a handful of vendors with multiple stalls– so it makes it seem bigger than it actually is.
It seems more of a social event to meet up with friends and family, and hardly had the authentic feel of any asian night market.