A unique festival celebrating anime and Asian pop culture took place in Arlington.
Nishi Fest “looks to innovate with a new format of convention – instead of one event per year, we look to expand accessibility to fans through multiple events per year with the possibility of expanding to include annual multi-day events in the future,” explains the festival’s website.
“Everyone’s into the same stuff that we’re into, you know,” said Jeremy Brown of Hueston Kid Art, speaking to The Dallas Express.
“So just being around the culture you know everyone. Like man, me and all these different people from different ethnicities and everything, you know, loving stuff that we grew up on, old school stuff too, so you get all the best flavors right here,” Brown added.
The one-day festival at Esports Stadium on November 5 featured dancers from K-Pop Dallas, a dance program created by David Yi and Chantha Mao, who are also married.
Classes at K-Pop Dallas center around Korean Pop music (known as K-Pop) and attract fans of the genre and the culture as well as the featured artist in the class song.
Nishi Fest brought out voice actors, directors, and fan-favorite content creators and influencers such as Emi Lo, a Taiwanese/Chinese American voice actor and director.
Lo is most well-known for voicing Rena in Higurashi When They Cry, Lucy in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Suma in Demon Slayer, and Uta in Netflix’s Bubble movie.
The festival also showcased a car show that displayed modified street cars, which included anime vendors from Texas, such as Blaze Manga, and artwork from Hueston Kid Art, Francisco Silva, and V1 Tech, along with many others.
“The ability to meet with the fans and get to talk about different topics, similar interests, and just showing our art to other people … engaging with them talking about art, talking about shows, is what I like most about events such as these,” said Pedro Blaze of Blaze Manga, talking with The Dallas Express.
