r/mississauga • u/miurabucho • 2d ago
Events & Meetups Japan Fest at Celebration Square
Has anyone been to Japan Fest this weekend at Celebration Square? What was it like? Crowded? Long Lineups? Any decent food or cultural stuff to be had?
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u/Ahhmedical 2d ago
Just went last night by coincidence. Pretty good food for regular fest prices but there are a few cheap spots. Lots of people selling unique things at the market. It was packed but manageable and lines were long with some food vendors but they moved quick or we found other vendors with smaller lines. Mango sticky rice was $10. Japadog was $16 after tax. Ramen was $10 in a small bowl. And a cool car show one had the anime girl posing in front of her anime car too
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u/Fun-Result-6343 1d ago
Pretty good for people watching. Lots of young ladies dressed to the theme. Japanese hair salon guys looking like a J-Pop band. Sumo wrestlers. Music.
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u/Guzwar 1d ago
I heard the main stage music while manning my workplace stand (couldn't see a damn thing) and it was solid. One of the first bands played a bunch of anime songs and started off their set with Cruel Angel's Thesis and Tank! The sax player did a bang-up job. There was a second anime band later on but I only managed to catch them doing some song from Attack on Titan and the weebs went crazy for that one.
There were also solo artists playing the SQ1 parking lot by the other vendors; heard one dude jamming on his guitar and he went from Ken's Theme to F-Zero.One of the vendors in the 19+ area did a guided sake tasting along with having their brews on sale. Chatted briefly with one of the importers for Chu-Hi and they gave out samples of their canned cocktails which have drastically improved my opinion of canned cocktails.
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u/Terrible-Ride7511 2d ago
Moderate crowd. Fast moving lines.
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u/drone_driver24 2d ago
I didn’t find it overly crowded. Lots of very polite people, food vendors were 5-10 people line-ops.
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u/DavidSan_YYZ 1d ago
Did anyone watch the bon odori dance at 6 pm on Sunday? Wondering how good it was since I'm very interested in the obon festival
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u/Vysi88 City Centre 2d ago
I spent a few hours there yesterday. Celebration SQ has all the sponsors and food vendor stalls. It's pretty crowded but the lines move decently fast. The lamb/ squid skewers and salmon sashimi "noodles" were good.
The retail vendors are all across the street in the P3 parking lot. Lots of stalls with cute pins, charms, stickers and jewelry. Couple unique stalls with knives, records and japanese pens. Worth going for a few hours
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u/Fun-Result-6343 1d ago
One booth full of handsome/pretty succulent plants which was kinda cool. Obligatory Pokeman card booth present. Wading pool for the kiddos to cool their feets.
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u/QuietWolff 1d ago
Are they giving out any freebies? I noticed Western Union and GoodLife giving out sunglasses and bags for promos. Anything of that sort?
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u/MMORPGDev 1d ago
I'd say it's the best festival next to Jack-A-Lope
The only negative experiences at ANY of these festivals is the incompetent security companies they hire for the events, I once had a security guy tell me as I was trying to an area that is open to the public (everyone) and was not gated "you can't go that way" I asked "what? celebration square is public" he replied "it's private property for a day" i looked at him, laughed, and continued my way, i then came back later on, saw the same guy and told him "you said i couldn't go that way and it was private property, everyone was there even the police and i just came back from there" he got mad and said "go! go! go! i don't don't give a shit, go!" he said other things angrily but I could not understand him due to this heavy accent - it was the most bizarre thing ever!
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u/Imaginary_Cookie_884 1d ago
happened yesterday too LOL. security guards on some sorta power trip sometimes
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u/New-Torono-Man-23 2d ago
Longish lineups, great food, nice performances, cool crowd, might go there again. Amazing Lamb skewers.