Massive Two-Day Japanese Food and Entertainment Festival Coming to Mississauga This Weekend

Summer is about to end on a very high note in Mississauga.  

A note that includes food, a chef competition, music and some very popular J-Pop bands. 

Japan Festival Canada (which was initially called Japan Day Mississauga when it first came to the city in 2016) is coming back this weekend–and it will celebrate 90 years of diplomatic relations between Canada and Japan (meaning there will be some extra special events to look forward to).

The two-day festival will run from Saturday, Aug. 25 to Sunday, Aug. 26 at Celebration Square.

Just in case you forgot, the inaugural Japan Festival Canada was held at Celebration Square for the first time two years ago and it more than lived up to the pre-event hype. The festival welcomed approximately 40,000 people during its bustling eight-hour run. Naturally, it welcomed even more people (about 70,000) over its follow-up two-day run in 2017.

The first ever event was held to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Mississauga’s relationship with its Japanese sister city, Kariya. Now, this year’s event is honoring the establishments of their own embassies in Canada and Japan during 1928-1929.

And it’s doing so with a plethora of activities.

“Japan Festival Canada 2018 is themed to bringing more of Japan to Canada and to the world with the highest respect,” Japan Festival Canada’s website says.

Attendees can expect expanded Japanese food booths, traditional Japanese entertainment, modern Japanese pop culture, state of art technologies and more.

As far as food goes, guests can chow down on such Japanese staples as ramen, takoyaki, donburi, karaage and more. 

Some recognizable vendors at the event will include EDO, Guu Izakaya, Ryu’s Noodle Bar, Ichifuku Montreal, Mye Japanese Restaurant, Kinton Ramen, Uncle Tetsu’s Japanese Cheesecake and more. 

The biggest change attendees can expect is the brand new Canada-Tokyo Chef Competition. The competition, set to run on the Saturday, will ask competitors to think up a special dish that will best commemorate the 90th anniversary.  

The winner will be awarded a round trip airline ticket to Tokyo.

The inaugural event was actually the largest Japanese event ever held in Canada and was organized to introduce “Wa” or “True Japan” to Canadians. The soiree was a huge hit, possibly because it celebrated one of Japan’s greatest and most crucially important exports (food) and was run similarly to a traditional Japanese summer festival (or Matsuri). The day was absolutely packed with spectacles, including drumming, dancing, J-Pop, breakdancing, sake and traditional Japanese food.

The event is being hosted by insauga.com’s own Khaled Iwamura, and insauga.com is one of the event’s media sponsors. 

For more information, click here.