Hmong Wausau Festival unites generations on Aug. 1-2

The intensity of the August sun can push people into the shade, encroach upon their comfort and keep them indoors, but the Hmong Wausau Festival does the opposite for a single summer weekend, pulling the Wausau community outdoors for a celebration of culture.

At the Peoples Sports Complex, rows of authentic Hmong cuisine line the parking lot, dozens of small businesses pop up their stands, singing and dancing competitions radiate from the stage and matches of soccer, volleyball, flag football and cornhole ensue. Kicking off the festivities is an extensive parade on Saturday morning, beginning at the Grand Avenue and East Kent Street intersection, and a ribbon cutting at the route’s finish, typically snipped by the weekend’s keynote speaker.

“[The ribbon cutting] signifies the opening of the event, but there are a couple of components,” Hmong Wausau Festival chairman Yee Leng Xiong said. “In the beginning, typically the elders would ask the dignitaries to say a few words to bless our community, bless for a successful festival, but also bless a beautiful year and harvest. After they say those words, they talk about how they want to rid this community of all pain, harm and misfortune, and send that away. Then they’ll cut the balloon and release all the hardships in our community. Afterwards, they bless the community with good fortune and then do the ribbon cutting signifying the opening of the event and bringing a wave of blessing to our local community.”

This ribbon cutting ceremony and multi-thousand-person gathering were introduced to the Wausau area in 2017 as a way to promote unity and remedy the fractures between different Hmong generations living in Wausau.

“When I became the executive director of the Hmong American Center in 2017, the organization was actually on the verge of closure ... There were elders that were upset with how the young folks were doing things, and the young folks were upset with how the elders were doing things,” Xiong said. “The event was actually meant to be kind of a unifier for the Hmong American community, but also it was to raise funds for the Hmong American Center’s programs. We knew there was a new soccer complex, but we didn’t know how it would work. We were expecting 4,000 people to attend. By the end of the event in 2017, we had over 7,000 people there, so it was almost two times the amount of people we were expecting.”

The proceeds gathered by the Hmong American Center help fuel local scholarship programs, Hmong funerals and ceremonies, senior transportation and multiple nonprofit organizations and their services. In recent years, the Hmong American Center’s charitable capability has grown thanks to increasing interest in the festival. The 2025 festival brought in over 14,000 attendees spanning from different lifestyles, ancestry and cultural practices.

“The wonderful part about our event is that we’ve been able to bring in folks from the Hispanic community and Latin community. We’ve been able to bring folks from the refugee community as well,” Xiong said. “Despite having an emphasis on the Hmong community, it has an opportunity for our community members to participate too. In addition, the Hmong Festival has been a huge contributor to our community here. I did some math and realized the Hmong Festival has contributed about $30 million in economic impact to our local area. So it’s not just a Hmong festival, it’s a festival for the Wausau Central Wisconsin community.”

For newcomers to this year’s festival, Xiong suggests not to focus solely on a single Hmong dish or festival activity, but rather take advantage of the diversity at hand.

“We have plenty of amazing food vendors, but I always encourage individuals to try a little bit of each stall,” Xiong said. “They each have different types of food, and I encourage diversity — you might see food from the Caribbean, Latin America, Italy, Manila, Thailand or Laos ... I also encourage them to go look at the sports. We have some very talented athletes. I encourage folks to look at our dancers, our singers, and really immerse themselves in the incredible tapestry that keeps our community together.”

Since the initial 2017 festival spearheaded by Wausau’s Hmong American Center, a coordinated web of efforts on behalf of the clan leaders, local police departments, the parks department, hundreds of volunteers and other partners have made these celebrations a reality.

“Every year I ask myself why I go through the planning for this festival. But then on the day of the event, I see people gather around, celebrating, having fun. That makes up for it. It reminds me that this is a community-oriented event for people to get together and celebrate being Hmong, but also to see the wonderful things about Central Wisconsin … I can’t even say it’s just the Hmong community’s event; it’s the Wausau community hosting a Hmong community event. It’s possible because of the incredible partnerships we have in the local area,” Xiong said.

Tickets for the festival are $11 per day or $20 for the Aug. 1-2 weekend. Children under 10 and seniors over 65 get in at no cost. Tickets are only sold upon entry with ticket booths opening at 6 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

To learn more, visit hmongwausaufestival.org.