Now celebrating its fifth year, the BC Dumpling Festival returns to Coquitlam's Town Centre Park August 15th, where crowds gather not just for handmade dumplings, but for live music, cultural performances and one of the largest free community events in the Lower Mainland.
For founder Gina Chong, reflecting on that first year, it's still hard to believe.
"We thought maybe 5,000 people would come," she laughs. "Instead, 25,000 showed up. We were standing there wondering, 'what just happened?' It became this huge event right from the start."
Every vendor sold out within hours. Food trucks scrambled back to restaurants to restock while lineups stretched across the park. The City of Coquitlam had a simple message for the organizers: you need to do this again next year.
But the story behind the festival began long before those record-breaking crowds. In March 2021, during the height of the pandemic, Chong was walking through Town Centre Park when a stranger confronted her. "This COVID—it came from you. It came from your country. Go back to China." The encounter was deeply upsetting for Chong and got her thinking about the rise of anti-Asian racism during the pandemic and the growing sense of community fragmentation.
A few months later, a conversation with a colleague sparked an idea: bring people back to that same park, but this time for something joyful. Create a celebration around food. And not just any food – one of the most culturally symbolic and widely shared traditions – dumplings.
“It's something that people make together," she says. "It's something people share."
Five years later, the festival's popularity shows no signs of slowing down. But success has also created new challenges. The cost of tents, fencing, staging, security and portable washrooms continues to climb. This year, Chong's long-time sponsors, many from the real estate sector, pulled back as the development market slowed, leaving an $88,000 hole in the festival budget.
"We were very close to cancelling," Chong says. "Very close."
But thanks to a grant - funded from revenue generated by BCLC – that decision didn’t have to be made. "It was the biggest saver for us. We would not have gone ahead without [it]."
Funds for the festival were distributed through the Spirit of Coquitlam grant program which supports not-for-profit, community-based organizations and is funded from revenue received through the Province of BC’s Host Local Government payments, benefiting local governments or First Nations that host casinos.
There is also strong alignment between the festival, and what it stands for, and BCLC’s newly launched Human Connection Project.
"Our BCLC Human Connection Project is built on a simple idea: people need opportunities to connect in person,” said Lara Gerrits, Director of Social Purpose and Partnerships and Engagement at BCLC. “As everyday life becomes more digital, and as more public events become ticketed or harder to access, free community gathering spaces are more important than ever. We’re proud to play a role in helping create opportunities for gatherings and community events designed to bring people together."
For Chong, that's exactly what makes festivals like this worth fighting for. "Nothing is free anymore," she says. "These kinds of spaces are becoming more and more rare."
The loss extends beyond entertainment. Research continues to show that strong social and human connections are essential to mental health and among the strongest predictors of overall health and well-being.
Ask Chong whether the BC Dumpling Festival offers that kind of connection, and her answer comes without hesitation. "Oh, a hundred percent. Absolutely."
She has a favorite way of describing dumplings. "They're pockets of love. They’re all handmade, right? All of these dumplings that these vendors are making, they’re making them by hand and cooking them up for people fresh at the festival.”
They're made by hand, often alongside family or friends, and they're meant to be shared.
In many ways, that's become the recipe behind the BC Dumpling Festival too.
Join the 5th Annual BC Dumpling Festival presented by RBC at Town Centre Park, Coquitlam on August 15, 2026 from 11am to 8pm. For more details, visit: www.bcdumplingfest.ca
As part of the BCLC Human Connection Project, BCLC is working to support tangible projects that help promote human connection, develop products with purpose, co-create community-impact programs, and build partnerships that support happier and healthier communities.
To learn more, visit: www.corporate.bclc.com/our-social-purpose/human-connection-project.html
