Versai Hoi Cho Tet -Vietnamese New Year Festival

⁴⁄₅ annual fun and fix.
tip #1: just go. no, it’s not weird and no, you don’t need to speak vietnamese or anything. just hang out!
tip #2: bring cash
this is an interesting weekend long experience — and i say experience because it’s part dining, drinking, dancing, entertainment, and education! don’t delay until the end of the weekend because they will sell out of popular dishes.
beware silly string attacks and the ground pop thingies! get some of the coffee, and then get that warm green waffle. you can get a solid multi-​course meal here for under $ 20, and there’s something special about eating it in a communal setting vs. ordering at a restaurant. there are menus and pictures, so you’ll be fine.
part of it is just being here — as others noted it’s pretty much an adventure. give yourself at least a couple of hours to sit back, relax, and take it all in. in fact, you might consider coming twice to experience it both during the day and then also at night — the vibe really changes. last time we went, we brought a deck of cards to play some games in between rounds of banana fritters with a blasting music in the background.

I attended Tet Fest for my second year, with a little more expertise and still no idea how we got out this way. Again follow directions.
I still love this festival for the reasons that the food is served in full portions at amazingly affordable prices, they have some great revolving entertainment including dance teams, fashion shows and singing acts, and a really wonderful, unique cultural experience that you don’t find in New Orleans proper that often.
The entrance is better defined, and the event is still free to get in. There are two main areas for food, one to the left of the entrance with plenty of seating, and then another further into the festival towards the back right. In between are a handful of games including a betting game (you can win credits to use at the festival) called Bau Cua Tom Ca that is incredibly popular.
The reason for a star drop is a few things that I’m not the biggest fan of that were more prominent this year than last year. This is a crowded fest, 100%, but unlike the slow crowd movement of events like Jazz Fest, there is a kinetic energy to this one with kids running around literally everywhere! They also sell industrial-​grade poppers (no sawdust sperm-​looking pansy poppers here) that I kind of loathe with a fire of a thousand suns. A handful of times, I was in the crossfires of children throwing them at each other or one, grenade-​style, ended up under my boot. I even saw children constructing what looked like a small popper bomb out of a discarded bottle. The pop and occasional sting of one hitting me was not my favorite…
I was also still unaware of some of the ways this festival works, and blankly stared at folks picking up their bowls of phở before me though I had paid before them. I finally was told I need to be more aggressive and got my delicious bowl of phở. This year I also ate a handful of their green waffles which were very good! Their sake is also $ 2 a shot if you’re feeling saucy.
This festival knows where they can make their money. After enjoying the well-​priced foods, I avoided the games this year that gobbled up all my cash the year prior. The one thing I DID want though was a dragon marionette doll… priced at $ 22! Wha??? Fortunate for me, I have awesome friends that bought me one for an early birthday present, and I’m mildly obsessed with him.
I will absolutely return to this festival next year despite the poppers. If you want to make it easier to find your friends or children, strap a balloon onto them and keep tabs on them as they trek around the fest. This festival is one that I visit, I eat, I see a few acts, maybe eat some more, and leave. I don’t think I could make an entire day of this festival, but really love that it exists.

Good festival. Lots of delicious and interesting food. Crazy little kids running around throwing fireworks and spraying silly string. Lots of young Vietnamese people smoking cigarettes. Just a good time all around.

I always enjoy celebrating the Lunar New Year in the Versai neighborhood of New Orleans East. My child went to the academy that is affiliated with the Queen Mary of Vietnam parish that hosts the festival so that’s how I found out about it.
I love the freshly made Viet foods they offer as well as the games and cultural performances they incorporate in to it. They have a variety of business representatives that you can talk to about different services. They also have an exhibit that shares the history of the community and their journey to the eastern area of New Orleans. You can bring the entire family and spend the day (s) celebrating the new year. I always enjoy everything about this festival each year I attend.

Only once a year this place opens for three days. Great outdoor music food and fun games for all ages. A wide variety ofAuthentic Vietnamese foods for all. From Phở to Banh Mi. You have to check this event out at least once in your lifetime. You will not regret it.

Isn’t as big as what I’m used to in Cali. Tons of food vendors, no rides, not many tet games. You go to eat and listen to music pretty much. Wasn’t bad, food was at a reasonable price.

First time at New Year Vietnamese Festival (Monkey) 2016. Free to get in i find everyone so friendly explain the different types foods, performances, games etc there’s abundance of all types Vietnamese Foods prices are really reasonable, also have different types of seafood Shrimp, Charbroiled Oysters, Fish even Raffle tickets. Come out have some fun this weekend you will not be disappointed !!!

I absolutely LOVE this! Our family and of course the community look forward to this every year. It just gets better and better! The crowd beginning to look more diverse as the year goes by. I love to see more of it. I come for the food, music, and just bumping into people I haven’t seen since childhood. Keeping the tradition alive! Keep it going people!

One of the great New Orleans festivals featuring all that is Vietnamese American culture. The food, music and fun is all authentic with some exotic varieties that you won’t see on many menus around the city. If you haven’t been to this festival, make your plans for next year.

The guy thought that it would be a nice Saturday night shindig for us. This is my first time to this festival, and I found it to be awesome. Free admission, cheap GOOD food, and great entertainment. There is one stage. Lion dances, Asian music, fireworks, musicians, singers.
There is also a form of roulette type gambling for adults, and a great amount of activities for children.
There was a line for the female restroom, and there was even toilet paper (and plenty of it) and paper towels for hand drying.
Why only three stars? Kids running loose all over, not paying attention to where they are going and no apparent parental supervision. Kids not caring where they are setting off fireworks, much to my dismay (someone could get hurt). I did see a couple of injured children crying and not knowing where their parents were.
I do think that I would go back!

It’s always nostalgic to come here once a year to celebrate Vietnamese New Year. I love the food. There not a thing I would complain about it, we’ll wxcept for the price of food. I love the fact that they have fresh banh tieu (a Vietnamese sesame seed beignet). The duck eggs a delicatessen that I can’t miss. Another is the hot n spicy Lau De (curry goat soup) that I always eat by myself. My generation don’t seem to enjoy those different dishes. I love the rare and unusual.

This is a fantastic event that transports you to another culture and fully immerses you in a Vietnamese festival. These folks really know how to throw and party and have a good time and there are plenty of drinks along with great food like plaintain friiters, various soups, kabobs, spring rolls, egg rolls and all manner of other things in Vietnamese that I don’t even know what they were. This is one of the most packed festivals of its type I’ve ever attended and there is no shortage of fun for children so this is an event for all ages. Firecrackers and silly string are in full effect and you never know when they will be used. The entertainment and main stage are all top notch and could give a Vegas show a run for the money. The only negative thing I could comment on is that nasty honky hipsters were skulking and sulking about in their nasty depressing hipster ways.
Hoi Cho = Festival
Tet = Vietnamese/​Lunar New Year
Versailles Hoi Choi Tet is the Vietnamese New Year’s Festival at Mary Queen of Vietnam Church in New Orleans East.
The festival typically begins on Friday around 6:00 PM and ends on Sunday around 10 pm. Opening ceremonies with lion dance are Friday around 6:30 PM. The big entertainment with Vietnamese pop singers and local community talent are on Saturday night, around 8 PM.
Entry is FREE!
Food, Drinks and Live Entertainment!
BRING CASH (as its cash only)!

I was very excited to finally try this festival that I have heard wonderful things about for years. I love a good adventure and I love Vietnamese food.
This festival is located ‘out in the east’ just a short drive from the city near some restaurants that we love, so it seemed like a great way to spend a part of a lovely Sunday afternoon with friends.
There was plenty of parking just across the street from the church grounds and we were greeted by some very loud pop music when we arrived just after 12 noon. I should have known that if we could hear it so well in the parking lot across the street that it would be close to deafening once we got into the festival proper.
We wandered around for a bit taking it all in before we settled down to eat. There was an interesting mix of folks, mostly families with lots of children, plenty of merriment and more silly string than I have ever seem in one place. The choo-​choo train was the driving happy kids and adults around the grounds and vibe was nothing but happy.
Once everyone in our crew each found something to eat we took turns trying out each other’s food. We tried phở with mixed beef, bun with grilled pork, the fried plantain fritters, Vietnamese crêpe, spring rolls and some neat rolled rice noodle thing (not sure of the name). While there wasn’t anything awful about our choices, it was decided that it was ‘Fair Food’ after all and not the best example of the cuisine that we all loved so much.
We had a nice time. Probably won’t go back again, but instead visit one of the restaurants that we know we love and get some great food minus the silly string and blasting music.

Have you ever had a tiny Vietnamese nun pull you along and order some blood pizza for you?
I did yesterday.
She also told me I should really get a beer afterward.
Ok.Where has this nun been my entire life?
…
The Girly and I went to the far East… of New Orleans, I mean. To the wonderful New Year Festival they have out in Versailles.
We were greeted by a large group of little kids burning themselves with firecrackers and generally having a good time.
This is a rather small event centering on no rides like fairs, very few games and a LOT of food.
We took a good look around to see what we wanted to try before doing anything else. The first booth we stopped at had banana fritters and the Vietnamese version of balut (Steamed fertilized duck egg). We got a couple of bananas and an egg.
I told myself I would never try this particular dish. I’m adventurous but always thought this would be passed my comfort line. But we bought one because the woman running the line said they were «just right» and we should do it. So we did.
We didn’t eat the little ducky but we did eat the yellow stuff. It was sort of like regular egg yolk but creamier and had a stronger flavor. I actually liked it. What floored me was when the Girly wanted a bite. She wasn’t a fan but she tried it and that is awesome.
The fritters were amazing. Sweet but not overly so. The batter was crispy like a good beer batter. The Girly’s favorite dish of the day.
After looking all over, I came to a booth which had no English translations at all. I figured I was in the right place for what I’d been looking for but since no Americans usually ventured there, no one in the booth spoke English. So we ended up in the next booth where the earlier mentioned tiny nun asked us what we would like. When I told her, she grabbed me and marched me back over and ordered for us.
Before she left she told us to get some beer or wine and said we were very brave.
So the Holy Grail of the festival dishes arrived. Tiet canh (Blood pizza). It came with cilantro, chilies, (they only gave us 2 thinking we wouldn’t be able to handle the regular 4) lemon/​lime and was made of blood, gizzard pieces, herbs and spices and chilies.
So you squeeze the lemon/​lime over the pizza and mix it around. To my surprise, the Girly once again volunteered to try some. Believe it or not, the only thing she didn’t like was the cartilage pieces from the gizzards. She actually LIKED the flavor.
We both felt invigorated for the rest of the day. It was really a good time and a wonderful experience.
We wandered some more and ended up getting a little green bun with some kind of pork sausage in it and what I think was half a duck egg. It was like breakfast sausage and an egg wrapped in a green pancake. VERY good. We liked it a lot.
We were seriously 2 of maybe 4 white people there at all and we were treated like family by everyone we met. Really a wonderful feeling and a great experience.
I would recommend this to anyone who is open minded and willing to step outside their comfort zones.
and vampires.
Bring cash.

I have a hoi cho problem, you guys.
Every year, I tell myself I’m going to save some money, not eat so much, not drink so much. And every year, I end up going to two or three of these things, spending hundreds of dollars over 48 hours, filling myself to the brim, and bringing home eggrolls and porridge to freeze for next week when THERE WON’T BE ANYMORE FAIR AND WHAT AM I GOING TO EAT NOW. What’s up with that?!
Vocabulary lesson, for those of you not in the know (don’t worry, I’m not Vietnamese either):
Tet = Vietnamese New Year/​Lunar New Year
Hoi Cho = New Years Festival
Marrero Hoi Cho = Occurs across the river, usually the weekend before Versaille’s fair.
Woodlawn Hoi Cho = Also across the river, in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Algiers
Versailles Hoi Cho = The biggest of the three and the best of the best.
Picture 3 full days of celebrating, eating, drinking (Heineken or Budweiser being your only two choices… and I guess soda), gambling, entertainment, AND a car raffle? Crowds of Vietnamese aunties and uncles gossiping, their kids running and weaving in and out, shooting silly string and firecracker-​poppers at your feet and (literally) on each other’s bodies? Booths upon booths, some with cheese fries, some with ticketed games, many with beer or phở or card games.
That’s just a snapshot.
Versaille’s fair is held at Mary Queen of Viet Nam Catholic Church, in the New Orleans East Vietnamese neighborhood. The entire festival is both a cultural celebration, replete with lion dances all weekend and community performances (local Latino and Taiwanese dance troupes perform every year, in addition to traditional Vietnamese fan dances and hip-​hop routines from the Viet-​Am youth), an eating destination, and a fundraiser for the church, which acts as a local community center, hosting cultural classes in addition to Catholic catechism. Don’t forget the Vietnamese pop stars, flown in from Viet Nam or, more sensibly, Southern California’s Little Saigon. You might not understand it, but you WILL dance.
Food you can’t get any other time of year at any restaurants are readily available, from tiet canh (gelatinous raw goat’s or duck blood with liver), goi with goat tendons (essentially, goat and herb salad), to hoi vit lon (fetal duck eggs) and chao long (my FAVORITE– rice porridge with all kinds of pork offal – liver, heart, gizzard, intestines). Be prepared to pay, however, as these items are priced at that specialty rate.
Also, the cheese fries are weirdly one of the best part. Nacho cheese from a dispenser is greater than melted cheddar or whatever. It has been written.
There are booths and prizes for the kids, and even a little gardening/​nursery section where you can buy flowers and miniature orange trees (are these called kumquats or something? I choose to believe in their bonsai-​orange nature) and concrete vases. The location stays the same every year while the date varies according the actual date of Lunar New Year; the 2013 fair begins tonight, February 15, and lasts until Sunday, the 17.