Gov. Tony Evers | Facebook/Governor Tony Evers
Gov. Tony Evers | Facebook/Governor Tony Evers
The annual Wausau Hmong Festival is slated to return this year after the COVID-19 pandemic dashed last year’s event.
The festival is to be held from July 31 through Aug. 1 at Peoples Sports Complex located at 602 E. Kent St., with Gov. Tony Evers planning to grace the festivities.
“Loved visiting the last Hmong Wausau Festival in 2019, and I'm looking forward to visiting again this year,” Evers tweeted on July 25.
The event’s Facebook page also announced that the governor will be in attendance.
Wausau Daily Herald (WDH) reported that the festival will have an array of competitions, tournaments, pageants, fireworks and food vendors all to celebrate the resilience and heritage of the Southeast Asian community.
Marathon County Board supervisor and Hmong American Center executive director Yee Leng Xiong told the publication that the event has sparked interest nationwide, stating visitors have arrived from places like Georgia and North Carolina.
"That itself speaks volumes to how excited the members of the Hmong community are,” he told WDH.
Britannica.com states that the Hmong are an ethnic group that reside chiefly in China and Southeast Asia and speaking Hmong, one of the Hmong-Mien languages.
The U.S. is home to more than 170,000 Hmong, with most making their homes in the Midwest.
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