APASA Night Market 2023🍴

The one and only APIDA annual night market.

Written and told from the perspective of APASA interns Ricca Yip and Katelyn Saiki

NIGHTMARKET IS BACK!! As interns, our first year getting involved in this vibrant and community-focused event was thrilling - bringing together APIDA organizations from across campus through a combination of delicious food, performances from dancers, singers, and instrument players, and fun cultural games! Night Market is inspired by the 626 Night Market as well as Night Markets across Asia and seeks to provide a platform for our community to showcase and celebrate themselves on campus.

To begin with, Night Market is no easy task to manage, from coordinating performances and tweaking with the mics at soundcheck to reaching out to food vendors to supply yummy treats for us all at the event to setting up the club booths and prizes. A lot of planning and community outreach went into bringing this incredible event to life and we certainly couldn’t have done it without our APASA E-Board and interns, all the member orgs and performers, and local restaurants. So, let’s quickly bring you behind the scenes of planning the event - some highlights for me personally [Ricca] included being sprawled on the floor of our GM room, hunting for crayola markers for our posters, debating which jokes to use whilst introducing our performers, blue-tacking the wonderful Night Market posters across campus, and trying not to eat all the pancit bihon we were packing into containers.

Amazing food vendors from vibrant APIDA cultures were invited to provide food for everyone who came to Night Market and with the help of the E-Board and interns, we transported everything to McCarthy Quad and eagerly set up, anticipating the hungry crowds to come. For entrees, Himalayan House provided fragrant and delicious saag paneer and chicken biryani, Nong La served their yummy banh mi (including vegan varieties), and L.A. Rose presented their chicken adobo and pancit bihon. For dessert, we invited Thai Emporium for their sweet mango sticky rice and L.A. Rose cafe for their decadent turon. Lastly, for drinks, we served Cup of Cha’s milk tea with boba and fruity Malibu sun tea with lychee jelly and Vitacane’s 5 varieties of sugarcane juices. Everyone loved the selection and variety of food and drinks this year, and since I [Katelyn] was the historian for this event, it was so rewarding to capture everyone’s enjoyment on camera and play a part in creating these memories that bring people together.

Let’s not forget to mention the multitude of spectacular performances that night at the brightly lit center stage - as one of the emcees of the night, I [Ricca] was thrilled to be able to introduce all the performers with my co-emcee Ashley, ranging from the lively dance performances of SpadeA and Chaotic 3, welcomed by screams and cheers, to the rhythmic drumming of Kazan Taiko, who entranced the audience with their traditional Japanese drumming, Let’s not forget to mention our singers that night - from the harmonious Asli Baat, singing a fusion of English and South Asian music to the live swinging music and vocals of Band Kkori. I loved sprinting across the Night Market and its exciting atmosphere, checking in on the food stands as we delivered performers their food to checking up on the prize booths and check-in (all the while, sneaking bites of the delicious banh mi and refreshing sugarcane). To me, Night Market is truly a one of a kind night on our campus.

While scurrying around trying to take pictures of the Night Market, I [Katelyn] also stopped by several member organization booths and observed the fun games and activities people played in hopes of receiving tickets to take home the cool prizes offered! Whether it was making cultural bracelets with Dear Asian Youth, entering the kicking competition at USC Taekwondo’s booth, or engaging in intense Bollywood trivia with the Pakistani Student Association, everyone gathered around, trying their best to accumulate as many tickets as they could. Later on in the night, I checked out the prize booth and was sooo jealous of the lucky winners who received the cute squishmallow pack, the grand prize of the JBL Go 3 Speaker, and all the other fun prizes. Overall, Night Market 2023 was a huge success, and all the activities, foods, and prizes combined with the high energy of the event were so fun and definitely one of the highlights of my freshman year.

We hope that this entertainment and food-filled night introduced you to the diversity of our APIDA community at USC - and an again special thank you and acknowledgment to our e-board and interns - especially our programming director Kendal and the rest of our wonderful directors ❤️Another thank you to all the APIDA organizations and performers on campus - it wouldn’t have been the same without you.

Night Market will be coming back soon next year ❤️❤️❤️ stay connected with APASA and keep an eye out for another night of bright lights on McCarthy Quad!