Dragon Fest is giving out 1,000 free dumplings this weekend
This year’s Dragon Fest, one of New York City’s largest celebrations of Chinese food, culture and heritage, returned this spring with an event bigger calendar of events and lineup of vendors. Along with the 100 different Chinese dishes on offer—which range from savory options like pan-fried dumplings, stinky tofu and Chinese barbecue to sweet treats like dragon beard candy, coconut pudding and egg tarts—this weekend, the street festival is leading a very delicious dumpling giveaway.
RECOMMENDED: The 18 best dumplings in NYC, from soup dumplings in Flushing to mandu in Midtown
At Astor Place on Saturday, May 25, Dragon Fest will honor AAPI Month by doling out 1,000 free zongzi—a traditional Chinese rice dish made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves—on a first come, first serve basis.
The bamboo-wrapped snack will be offered in three flavors: savory pork, sweet red bean and original.
To wash it all down, there will be 10,000 bottles of flavored sparkling beverages handed out from festival sponsor Chi Forest.
To get in on the free dumplings, simply follow Dragon Fest’s Instagram page and like their post announcing the giveaway, tagging two friends in the comments. (Bonus: you can get an extra entry if you share their post to your Instagram story.) Do all of that by 10am on Saturday and, when you arrive the festival, show that you followed, commented and completed all the necessary steps during the giveaway period to redeem your complimentary snacks.
But even if you miss out on the dumpling giveaway, there are plenty of culinary traditions from nearly every province of China for you to explore at the vibrant street festival. With food vendors like Haidilao, Na Tart, Jixiang BBQ and dim sum classic Nom Wah, you can feast your way through slurp-ready soup dumplings, sugar-coated chestnuts, lotus root sandwiches, grilled cold noodles and much more.