Tet Festival

As my Viet homies would say Chúc Mung Nam Moi!?!
Driving home on 101 I noticed a sign for the Tet Festival, kind of intriguing so I was like what heck let’s peep it out yo!
~~~Cost~~~
$ 10 admission, comes with a free goodie bag with free samples like an audio CD of cultural music to samples of Goat milk shower cream to help nourish my dry ashy skin!?!
~~~Parking~~~
It was free, a large area across from the Fairgrounds and they also had parking allowed at the nearby school as well. Dirt like parking lot so you might want to bring the Civic and leave the Mercedes at home!
~~~Food~~~
They had a variety of vendors from Lee Sandwiches, Jazen Tea, Grilled Seafood, Kabobs, local bakeries, coffee brewery, and a lot of normal generic vendors selling general food like nachos and cotton candy. Also who could forget the Hot Dog lady selling those yummy LA style hot dogs as you enter the festival from the parking lot.
~~~Favorite Vendors~~~
Jazen Tea — perfect for a hot sunny day at the festival
Kabobs — the beef kabob was a hit, their chicken ones looked very dry, stay away!
Lee Sandwiches — beware, they had the longest line of all the vendors.
~~~Favorite Attractions~~~
Vietnamese Huts — made me feel like I was in the motherland
Live Karaōke — this area was hilarious, sing your favorite Vietnamese tunes and even bust a move while doing it.
Live Stage Music — indoor stage with Vietnamese celebrities putting on a show from singing to dancing. The sitting area was filled but there was standing room in the back.
~~Conclusion~~~
They can really improve this festival, first they should have schedule of when events are happening. We asked at the front desk but they had no idea when the Lion dancing started or a map to let us know where things are located. Also they did not utilize the space well. Some areas were too cramped while other areas had so much open space. All and all it was a great experience for me to get a taste of the Vietnamese culture and how they get down on New Years yo!?!

Wow, this use to be a big deal when I was younger. Grand Century may be giving them a run for their money because there was nothing to see, do or eat.
The food was the main reason I went and there was nothing exciting. What was available had long lines and was overpriced.

The event was not organized very well at all. We drove into the event before it started and wasn’t even asked who we were or what we were doing. Thus we got in free and parked inside the event. It seemed like the event was geared towards the purpose of Tet but had many vendors that had nothing to do with the holiday itself. The noise level was not controlled at all. It seemed like each vendor had a set of loud speakers and kept turning their noise up over power the next vendor. I could not even hear myself think. The charge to get in was $ 10 per person and $ 10 for parking. So if a family of 4 wanted to go the charge just to get in was $ 50. Now lets remember that all the food vendors were charged to be there so they must charge extra to make up for that cost. All the rides cost money so you can easily spend around $ 100. This event is not worth the time or money to go to.

Havent been here since I was a kid and I thought it would of been fun going this year.
Wrong! The flyer said it closes at 11pm therefore we decided to go there at 7pm on a Saturday. Went with a party of 5 and paid 10 bucks a person. Went inside and all the booths were closed. The food stalls ran out of food and was selling whatever they had left.
All we ended up seeing was a table tennis match and a karate match and quite frankly the place wreaks of B.O. I was very disappointed. I left empty handed and a little agitated because I spent 10 dollars for 15 minutes of nothing!
My party ended up buying nuoc mia but thats it. Typical carnival stuff that we can usually go to for free admission instead of 10 dollars. Waste of my freakin time!

Ummm no! It was snooze fest for sure. Thank goodness I didn’t pay to get in. It wasn’t as crowded maybe bc it was on same day as SUPER BOWL. The carnival rides are expensive ~$ 5/​ride.
The food was eh…$ 4 – 5 for some wings, $ 3.50 for banh mi, $ 5 nuoc mia. However, I really enjoyed the hawaiian bbq chicken $ 5, $ 6 with french bread. But you can get that at any festival.
I did not witness any dragon dancing or firecrackers. Just random booths in random buildings. Some ping pong tournament at one end and a free vietnamese concert at another hall. Concert was actually really entertaining. Had Thanh Ha and few other famous ppl. It got crowded fast since it’s free but security was too strict with blocking exits.
Sad to say I wasted my beautiful Sunday and missed the game.

**************** REVIEW 418 ******************
Happy New Year! Chúc Mung Nam Moi 2011 to all :-)
«TET is the Vietnamese New Year celebrated at the same time with the Chinese New Year around late January or early February every year. TET is the most important holiday in the Vietnamese culture, as important as Christmas and the New Year altogether to the Americans.» As explained on their website! This year TET festival at San Jose Fairground was held this past weekend FEB 5 & 6.
THE ANNUAL TET FESTIVAL IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA is the biggest annual event to promote Vietnamese culture and preserve traditional customs among over 300,000 Vietnamese residents of California. With the attendance of over 50,000 visitors this year, 1 of the most successful event for my people ever.
I love coming here with my nieces, friends & parents just to see Dragon dancing, taste special Vietnamese foods, watch original activities and games, playing games and rides, Music and Performances, Fashion Shows, and Contests: Martial Arts Tournament, Volley ball Tournament, Table Tennis Tournament, Talent Shows, Miss TET Pageant, Circus, Firecrackers and much, much more.
The last few years I got to involve with fashion shows here with two of the most prestige Vietnamese musical shows in the US: THUY NGA Paris & Asia Vietnamese Music. So I got to performed for my people, it’s a great feeling to get involve with your community in a small way.
This year my family and relatives enjoyed the performances more because my 11 years old niece got her debut fashion show for the first time ever. She didn’t fall and did a great job. I’m so proud of her, model-​in-​the-​making!
Cost to visit the Tet Festival is only $ 10, but if you wear AO DAI Vietnamese traditional dress, and it’s FREE. $ 7 for children, and parking fee is $ 8. If you want to explore Vietnamese culture, this is a great festival to come, you will see as you are transformed to TET in Vietnam.
THIS IS NOT A PLACE FOR YOU, if any these apply to you:

— Definitely if you can’t stand others speak their native language around you;
— If you are too Americanized; a BANANA :-)
— If you dislike children; because a lot of children are here!
— If you scare of fire crackers;
— If you don’t like noises;
— If you don’t like to walk on uneven pavement in your heels;
— If you don’t like to wait in line to order food, or the washroom!
— If you don’t like crowded places, or claustrophobic;
— If you easily frustrated with traffic on Tully Road to get in for at least 30 minutes!
— If you don’t like to fight for parking spaces (well, please come early, you will be fine!)
For older folks like my parents, $ 10 to see many famous Vietnamese singers live all day is a STEAL. But above of all, we get to spend time together as family in a traditional way, this is priceless and no better way to welcome the year of the hare/​cat 2001!

We came to the Tet festival and were pretty ignorant as far as the planning goes. We didn’t realize how crowded it would be and that we’d be in traffic for a good 45minutes when we were a mere 2 miles away from the fairgrounds. Once we finally battled through traffic and drove around looking for parking ($ 10) and entered the festival ($ 10 adults, $ 7 children) we were amazed by the sheer number of people that had shown up for this two day festival!
Unfortunately we didn’t plan our timing to the festival so we missed out on a lot of the cool stuff like the dragon dancers, pageants, and (better) music. What we did see included some fierce table tennis, lots and lots of food (too bad we had eaten a few hours earlier!), music, rides, booths, and tons and tons of people.
All in all it was a pretty cool experience, unlike anything you could find anywhere else in the U.S. We’ll probably return next year and budget our time for the extra hour of traffic getting there and also for some of the main attractions of the festival.