(upbeat music) - Nihon Matsuri is Utah's annual Japanese cultural street festival, and here with all this year's event details are Floyd Mori and Stephanie Sueoka.

Hello, both, welcome.

- Hello.

- All right, I'm gonna start with you Floyd.

Give us a little of the background about why you do the festival and about Japantown.

- You know, most people don't know that Japanese had been here in Utah for over 100 years.

My dad came in the early 1900s, began farming.

We have miners.

We had people work in agriculture.

And so the culture has been here, and there's been a Japantown here in Salt Lake and one in Ogden.

And so we want people to come and see what the culture is, learn a little bit, and enjoy some good entertainment and food.

- Oh, wonderful.

Great background, by the way.

And Stephanie, tell us what's happening at the festival this year?

- Well, we're looking forward to it.

We had a return last year after COVID, and it was very popular.

And this year, we expect it to be even bigger.

We have 40 booths, commercial, food, and cultural, that just provide a little bit of Japanese and Japanese American inspired food and artifacts.

We also have programming on an outdoor stage with Japanese dancing, a fashion show, martial arts, and cosplay, as well as the Ogden Taiko Group, the eighth oldest taiko group in the nation.

So please be sure to check that out.

And then we have two guest performers.

One is a Rakugon performer, and he does Japanese comedy, so you'll wanna come and see that.

He's known worldwide.

- Great, great, and I know people better get there early 'cause every time I go, long lines for food, yeah.

- Yes.

We're hoping to kind of curb some of the long lines this year and have more efficient system in place.

Come and check it out.

- Wonderful.

Well, you've got great things coming up, and I'm happy you are both here, so thank you.

- Thank you.

- Thank you for having us.

- And if you'd like to know more about the upcoming festival, Nihon Matsuri, it's the Japan Festival.

It's April 27th.

It's on 1st South between 2nd and 3rd West.

It goes from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Go to nihonmatsuri.com.

That's nihonmatsuri.com.

I'm Mary Dickson.

Thanks for watching "Contact."

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