Organization

Lowell Southeast Asian Water Festival

The Lowell Southeast Asian Water Festival is an annual festival on the Merrimack River in Lowell, Massachusetts, held on the third Saturday in August. People come from across the United States for its blessings, boat races, food, crafts and performances.[1][2] The Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association of Greater Lowell was one of the groups that planned the first festival, and representatives of Lowell's Khmer, Thai, Vietnamese and Lao communities incorporated the festival as a nonprofit in 2002.[2]

History

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences paid for the project that became the festival. Planning started in late 1996. The first working group brought together the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association of Greater Lowell, the City of Lowell Health Department, the Laotian American Organization and the University of Massachusetts Lowell's Center for Family, Work and Community.[2]

The first festival was held on Saturday, August 23, 1997, at the Sampas Pavilion on the Merrimack River, and it drew about 10,000 people. The UMass Lowell Library counts it as probably the first festival of this kind held outside Asia. Over the years the festival has run on a Saturday alone or on a Friday and Saturday.[2]

Lowell Southeast Asian Water Festival, Inc. became a nonprofit in 2002, set up by people from the city's Khmer, Thai, Vietnamese and Lao communities. Its aim is to preserve, protect and share the cultures of Southeast Asian Americans around Lowell.[2][1]

The festival

The festival has performance stages, a boat race on the Merrimack River and vendor booths with crafts, art, food, drink and information.[2] Arn Chorn-Pond sang at the 1999 festival.[3]

The festival's website announced the 29th festival for August 15, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Lowell Heritage State Park, with parking at Regatta Festival Field, 381 Pawtucket Boulevard. It listed food, boat races, cultural performances, merchandise and artisan craft booths, two stages, a demonstration tent and a free riverboat ride.[1]

Archive

The Center for Lowell History at UMass Lowell holds the Lowell Southeast Asian Water Festival, Inc. Collection, 1997 to 2014, as part of its Southeast Asian Digital Archive. Its 13 digitized files include event programs, flyers and posters from 1997 to 2007, and the board's minutes and agendas, fundraising papers and planning files from 2001 to 2014. Most of the material is in English, with some in Khmer and Lao.[2]

See also

References 3
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lowell Southeast Asian Water Festival, home page (2026)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 UMass Lowell Library, Center for Lowell History, Lowell Southeast Asian Water Festival, Inc. Collection, 1997 to 2014, collection guide (undated)
  3. ↑ Wikimedia Commons, Arn Chorn-Pond sings at Lowell MA Water Festival 1999 (photograph by Acme66)
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This page was last edited on 20 October 2026, at 10:43.