Atlantans have demonstrated their love and loyalty for pandas again.
Not only did Atlantans buy every ticket to the inaugural Panda Fest coming to Atlantic Station April 4-6, they also lined up to form a 50,000-person digital wait list, according to festival founder BiuBiu Xu.
Panda Fest is an expansion of a popular street fair in New York City called Panda Day. When Xu wanted to grow Panda Day to a full-scale, three-day Panda Fest, she found it difficult to accomplish in the bustling Big Apple.
Knowing Atlanta has felt a void of Pandas since Zoo Atlanta shipped back its beloved bears to China in October 2024, and recognizing Atlanta’s appreciation for Asian culture as evidenced by Buford Highway, Xu said she thought Atlanta would be a good fit for her festival’s first tour stop in a major metropolitan city. The low entry price, which started at $9 for early-bird tickets, likely played a part in the festival’s quick sellout. It sold out in just 49 days.
Due to demand, Panda Fest recently decided it will release some same-day, single-day tickets for $20. Starting at 12 a.m. on Friday April 4, 200 tickets will release. Then on Saturday and Sunday, an additional 400 per day will release. Sales will be online, first-come, first-served.
Xu was born and raised in China. This year marks 10 years since she came to the U.S. to attend university at Baruch College. After her education, she started a media company in New York, which morphed into an event production company called Sense Studio. Her first street fair, Dragon Fest, debuted in June 2023 and moved to four different parts of Manhattan on four different weekends. That fair served more than 100 varieties of traditional, popular and rare Chinese foods, including soup dumplings, dan dan noodles, sugar painting, candied hawthorn sticks, stinky tofu and bowl pudding cake.
Han-style clothing, Miao embroidery and jewelry introduced visitors to Chinese artistry. More than 200,000 people reportedly attended the festival, which had anticipated less than half that number.
Credit: Courtesy of Panda Fest
Credit: Courtesy of Panda Fest
Xu has produced roughly 25 events, including soup dumpling day, outdoor artisan markets and an egg-themed pop-up event called The Egg House, which celebrated eggs, toured in New York and Los Angeles and included photo stations where festivalgoers could sit in a giant egg carton.
During the pandemic, Xu said she became obsessed with watching panda TikTok videos, which she said “made her so happy.” She followed Fubao, the first giant panda born in South Korea in 2020 and grew attached to other specific bears. She started learning about panda family dynamics.
“My entire social media feed was pandas,” she said.
When Xu gave birth to her daughter 10 months ago, she decorated her stroller with all panda things. Her daughter has a panda jacket, a panda headband and a room full of pandas, which Xu has collected in each city she travels to.
For the Atlanta festival, Xu’s team will erect a 15-foot inflatable panda at Atlantic Station and hand out complimentary pins of a panda holding a Georgia peach and inflatable panda headbands. Key chains, magnets, tote bags, T-shirts and other varieties of panda merchandise will be sold.
Credit: Courtesy of Panda Fest
Credit: Courtesy of Panda Fest
Cuisine from across Asia and the Pacific Islands will be served, including panda-decorated items like a panda marshmallow skewer. K-pop dance performers, lion dance shows and other cultural performances will enliven the festival.
After Atlanta, the festival will move to Philadelphia April 26-27, Boston May 2-4, Seattle June 6-8 and the Twin Cities July 11-13. Plans are already in the works, Xu said, to bring back the festival for a second weekend in Atlanta this year (dates TBD) and annually thereafter. pandafests.com.
IF YOU GO
April 4-6. Sold out; limited same-day tickets available for $20. Atlantic Station Pinnacle Lot, 221 20th St., Atlanta. pandafests.com
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