Thousands Celebrate 20th Lotus Festival at Echo Park Lake

Gathering on a breezy afternoon overlooking a sprawling bed of pink lotus flowers adrift on Echo Park Lake, thousands gathered Saturday to celebrate the 20th annual Lotus Festival.

The event, promoted as a cultural exchange between Asian and Pacific Islander communities, took its name from the flowers, which in some Asian cultures symbolize growth, purity and rebirth.

The murky waters of this urban lake--fed by Sunset Boulevard storm drains and an underwater spring--host the largest lotus bed in the United States. And every July the broad green leaves skimming the surface erupt with blossoms for about a week.

People of all cultures strolled around the park, eating Filipino lumpia, buying Guatemalan wallets and watching Hawaiian hula dancers.

“Los Angeles is good because it’s got so many different kinds of people,” said William Womack, 49, who came with his wife and daughter from Glendale. “My wife and I try to make it to all the cultural festivals. We’ve been coming here about every year, and it just keeps getting better.”

Among the highlights of the festival, which continues until 8 tonight, are fireworks, dragon boat races, Asian barbecues, performances ranging from traditional dancers to hip hop, a carnival, petting zoo and Asian crafts.

For seven years, Linda and Jason Ho of El Monte have sold their custom-made iridescent porcelain vases, a style that dates back 1,200 years to the Sung dynasty.

Others dropped in more impulsively.

“We were just driving by and noticed it was a cultural event and smelled the food and decided to stop,” said Grant Gautsche, 34, of Riverside, who spent time in Asia with the Navy. “It brings back some memories.”

The festival caters to families--elderly couples ambling through bamboo and Banzai gardens, fathers and sons cruising on the lake in pedal boats and scores of children enjoying carnival rides.

Organizers estimated that 150,000 would attend over the weekend, the biggest turnout yet.

The festival was founded in 1972 by the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks. Echo Park was selected because it is located near Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Koreatown and the Filipino communities.

Over the last few years, numerous Asian and Pacific communities have participated, including Japanese, Filipino, Asian Indian, Chinese, Samoan, Tongan, Hawaiian, Thai, Indonesian and Vietnamese.

This year, for the first time, a health fair has been added. Booths offer screenings for cholesterol, blood sugar and body fat, as well as mammograms.