Cleveland Asian Festival shuts down over capacity issues, police say

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – The Cleveland Asian Festival was shut down three hours early Sunday after the city determined the event was over capacity, police confirmed.

Festival visitors were instructed to evacuate the Payne Avenue area. Police turned people away at the entrance as crowds were pushed out of Asia Town.

Wayne Wong a member of the Board of Directors said the city made the call to shut down the festival.

“The city felt that was more than the space could handle,” he said.

“My first five minutes in you hear them over the speakers saying they’re shutting everything down, it’s over with. All of the vendors closed up,” one visitor said leaving the festival.

Vendors forced to close immediately

Vendors were forced to close down immediately.

Sonja Nguyen owns Mochi and Co. and drove eight hours from St. Louis to set up her booth selling accessories, plush animals and trinkets. She had to break down the booth three hours early.

“It was just like security and police came over and said you have to shut this down you can’t sell anymore,” a Sonja Nguyen said.

Boxes were packed back up and bags were zipped shut.

“It was on track to be better than yesterday, but it’s now a little bit worse than yesterday,” a Njuyen said, until she had to shutdown.

Festival planners expected upwards of 50,000 people to visit over the course of two day. On Saturday, Nguyen said the rain likely kept people away, so Sunday was supposed to be a redemption day for sales.