Tet Festival to Be Moved to School

WESTMINSTER —  Amid the hustle and bustle of the lunchtime rush at the Vien Dong restaurant, the animated voice of owner Tony Lam can usually be heard rising above the clamor.

But on Friday, he was quiet, frustration visible on his face as he discussed the Tet Festival, an annual celebration of the Vietnamese new year that he has organized in the city since 1980.

Last winter, with the backing of his colleagues on the Westminster City Council, Lam was willing to fight the lawsuits that threatened to shut down the 1996 festival.

When a competing celebration was organized in Garden Grove, Lam said he would make Westminster’s even better. He vowed to continue, even when an arsonist attempted to set fire to his restaurant, a crime that Lam believes was meant to sabotage his efforts.

Despite that, and a series of nearby shootings that cast a shadow over the celebration, the festival was considered a success, drawing an estimated 70,000 people and providing $30,000 for charitable organizations, including seed money for a planned Vietnamese heritage center.

But this year, Lam said, he’s had enough. He is planning to step down from his longtime post as chairman of the Tet Festival organizing committee.

The final straw, he said, came last week when the City Council, over his vehement objections, decided to move the festival away from the heart of Little Saigon--Bolsa Avenue--to a nearby school.

“I won’t run it again this year,” Lam said of the festival, the most important religious and cultural holiday of the year for the Vietnamese community.

“I’ve tried the best I could, but now I’m really down. I think they’ve made a great mistake in moving it away from Bolsa Avenue.”

The council decision, backed by Mayor Frank Fry Jr. and council members Margie L. Rice and Joy L. Neugebauer, was prompted by a group of Little Saigon merchants, who have complained in recent years that the festival crippled their businesses for the three days that Bolsa was closed between Magnolia and Brookhurst streets.

The merchant group had filed a lawsuit against the city, attempting to block the last festival, held in February.

“I felt that they sacrificed last time and shouldn’t have to sacrifice again,” Fry said.

Fry said the proposed new location, McGarvin Intermediate School at 9802 Bishop Place, is larger, has more parking and will be safer. The Garden Grove Unified School District must still approve the deal.

“It’s a better site all the way around,” Fry said. “It’s easier for police, they won’t have to worry so much about traffic and crowd control, and for the Fire Department, it’s better because it’s easier to get to someone if there’s an accident.”

Just as the Westminster City Council is split (Councilwoman Margaret Shillington joined Lam in opposing the move), community opinion is also divided.

While Bolsa Avenue merchants generally praise the council’s decision, many residents feel that Little Saigon is losing a unique opportunity to showcase itself.

My Ha, who lives in Little Saigon and owns a beauty supply shop there, acknowledged that merchants are inconvenienced during Tet, but said the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.

“It has an impact, but I don’t mind the sacrifice for the welfare of our city and our culture,” she said. “In San Francisco, they close Chinatown for [festivals], so why can’t we do that here?”

Ha said that moving the festival to the school playground “is a very bad idea.

“The city will lose a lot of money from this and I think it will only benefit the other Tet” in Garden Grove, she said.

But Elaine Diep, manager of the Song Long restaurant and bakery, said that merchants along Bolsa Avenue sustained substantial losses during Tet last year.

With the streets blocked off, she said, many customers could not gain access to the shops, or simply stayed away. And, she said, festival-goers generally do not spend money outside the food booths.

“It hurt our business tremendously last year,” Diep said. “Everybody wants to have a festival, and have our traditions carried on, but it’s great that it’s in a new place. This way, we can have the festival and carry on with business.”

Back at Lam’s restaurant, a group of residents were speaking differently about the festival. It should stay in Little Saigon, they said, because it is the capital of Vietnamese culture in the United States.

“Little Saigon is famous, well known as the capital of Vietnamese refugees all over the world. It’s a very important place for us,” said Hien Thanh Tran. “The school is a very lonely place. Nobody will want to go there.”