Fair guests can experience the sights and sounds of 15 Asian countries at the Edison International Asian-Pacific Cultural Village at Fairplex in Pomona. The festival features Asian cuisines, the exotic sounds of Asian music and the traditional entertainment from a variety of eastern cultures. 

The village opened Thursday and remains open through today. Visitors can stroll Redwood Street, lined with nearly 100 booths featuring Asian foods, crafts and novelties while munching on teriyaki chicken or beef bowls. 

About 10 to 15 Asian communities are participating in the festival. Koreans, Thais, Cambodians and Japanese all have booths, as well as Chinese, Indian and Pacific Islanders. 

It's an effort to raise Asian cultural awareness while maintaining the unique aspects of each country's heritage. 

"The Asians have been around for a while," said John Leung, director of the festival. "They're in the community but not getting involved in the mainstream. The county fair is about as mainstream as you can get." 

Vendors are peddling pearls sold wholesale, toy mechanical spiders ready to pounce and a host of Asian cooking sauces shown off proudly through hourly cooking demonstrations. 

There's even a wheel of fortune. 

Deena Tchou, 46, of Woodland Hills gave the huge disc a spin. She squealed as it landed on her lucky number, 3, and groaned when she saw the prize: a plastic key chain. 

But suddenly another vendor came to Tchou's rescue, offering a floating lounger in the key chain's stead. 

"It's good luck," Tchou said. "Now all I need is a pool."At the end of the street is the festival stage, where ongoing entertainment takes place. On Saturday, Redlands resident Kate Lillibridge Ducet, 8, strolled down Redwood Street after a Westminster group performing the traditional Vietnamese Lion Dance. 

"She's just mesmerized by this," said Corla Coles, 47, of Redlands. "It's better than TV." 

The dance, led by two papier-mache lions and their sunny, happy guardian, is a familiar sight at the beginning of Asian festivals and is designed to bring good luck to the vendors and guests. Surrounding the lions were teens dressed in ceremonial, vivid red robes trimmed with gold. 

Once onstage the teens performed elaborate tumbling acts, leaping gracefully over each other and landing with effortless somersaults. The audience watched in awe, applauding spontaneously. 

"This is great," said Leung. "The kids can mix a lot easier than adults. This is what it's all about, cross-cultural understanding." 

Farther down the street, La Verne resident Ron Belmarch, 54, waited patiently while Korean artist Boklim Kim painted a delicate water color of hibiscus flowers and birds. Kim, who has won international awards, works and lives in Los Angeles. 

"I like to draw Korean traditional pictures," she said, leaning over the thick white paper and delicately applying her pencil-thin paint brush to its surface. "Hibiscus, the Korean national flower. Orchids. Korean birds." 

Belmarch has admired Asian art for years but says it's hard to locate. The painting he bought symbolizes health, wealth and happiness. 

"I'm going to frame this and hang it up," he said.