5th Annual BC Dumpling Festival

The 5th Annual BC Dumpling Festival is a free Coquitlam culture day presented by RBC and hosted by the Asian Arts and Culture Society. Saturday, August 15, 2026, runs 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM at Town Centre Park, 1299 Pinetree Way. Organizers describe a fifth-year crowd on the order of 40,000 people: 23 food vendors, 12 food trucks, more than 70 community vendors, 150-plus performers, and more than 230 volunteers. A Chinese Pavilion sits on the map alongside dumpling vendors from more than one cuisine. Donation boxes at the Welcome Tent support future festivals.

The Asian Arts and Culture Society exists because of a 2021 racism incident at Lafarge Park, the same Town Centre Park civic grounds. Founding member Gina Chong, a Tri-Cities realtor and photo-studio owner with small-business awards from the Tri-Cities Chamber, used art and then a festival as the reply. Executive director Chong; president Margaret Lai (Events by Margaret Lai). 2026 emcees include Vicky Wu, born in China and raised in Vancouver, a former Miss Chinese Vancouver; Trista Chan, raised in Hong Kong and working in events and weddings; and Charllagne Ocampo, an events professional. That slate is why this park still compounds introductions even though it is a public festival, not a chamber lunch. Food-truck, non-food vendor, performer, artist, volunteer, and sponsorship paths run through the contact form on bcdumplingfest.ca.

Coquitlam / Pinetree Way is Circuit Vancouver’s Tri-Cities Chinese and Korean household map, not Downtown Howe Street and not Richmond’s No. 3 Road. If you only treat Metro Vancouver as Yaletown tech mixers, you miss this park. The dumpling floor is how Chinese, Korean, and pan-Asian small businesses actually show up in the Tri-Cities in August, when Ascend, TiE, HKCBA, and FCCC-GV calendars are quiet. Sponsor tents and the Chinese Pavilion are the introduction surface. The beer-garden instinct is wrong here: this is a family festival with a vendor and sponsor lane running underneath.

No ticket. Parking at Town Centre Park is limited; organizers ask people to take transit or bike, with bike racks on site. Evergreen Line to Coquitlam Central or Lafarge Lake-Douglas, then walk. Handicap stalls along Trevor Wingrove Way are first come. Most vendors take cash and cards. Dumpling-eating contest registration is announced on Instagram closer to the day, not a walk-up guess. Screenshot the live stage schedule; performance blocks shift. Contact the society through bcdumplingfest.ca rather than a cold ask on the grass.

This day is right for Chinese, Korean, and pan-Asian operators in the Tri-Cities, people selling into that vendor graph, and anyone who wants the named Coquitlam culture day with sponsor density. Kimchi & K-Food Festival two weeks later is the Korean-specific vendor and K-Beauty floor on the same park. Leave cold pitch decks in the car; use opening ceremonies and sponsor tents as relationship time.