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Crowd walking down the street to visit booths at the fair.
Crowd walking down the street to visit booths at the fair.
© Alabastro Photography, U District Street Fair 2022 for The U District Partnership
Life > Experiences

How I Spent My Weekend at the U District Street Fair 2023

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Washington chapter.

The U District Street Fair takes place on University Way (or “The Ave”) every spring, and this year’s was from May 20th – May 21st. The street closes down for this two day event where it’s lined up with different businesses, small artists, and of course food trucks. This year I went with my boyfriend and my brother, so I will share some of their purchases as well!

I made sure not to eat before coming to the fair because I wanted to make room for all of the yummy food that would be there.

I wanted to get some chicken barbecue and rice from Lbee’s Filipino Deli stand but the line was half a block long. Instead I got food from Kathmandu MoMoCha, a pop-up food truck that sells Nepalese food. I ordered the cheese balls and the 10 piece vegan Momocha. I actually split the food with my brother just because I wasn’t expecting the food to be super filling. The MoMoChas are all handmade with fresh spinach wrap and stuffing with local grown seasonal vegetables, green onion, Himalayan spices, Garbanzo and herbs. Their food was delicious and they are a lovely family owned business that you MUST try!

Kathmandu MomochaKathmandu Momocha - U-District Street Fair 2023

Kathmandu MoMoCha

For drinks, my brother and I were in the mood for boba so we thought we’d splurge a little bit. If you were walking around the U District Fair, you’d see people carrying around light bulb boba drinks everywhere. We went to the Glow Tea for our drinks. I ordered a Brown Sugar Milk Tea and my brother ordered a Taro Milk Tea drink. The drinks were great, just be aware of the price of it. I think I paid around $10 for the drink, so if you were looking to save a bit of money, I wouldn’t suggest this booth. No need to fear though, there were multiple booths selling boba drinks for a cheaper price tag.

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Peep the cute dogs in the background

My brother ordered a beef sambusa from Kenyan Kitchen! Sambusas normally come in a smaller wrap, but they decided to create a bigger version of the homemade dish. My boyfriend ordered a small strawberry cheesecake and a large drink of lemonade. Unfortunately, we both forgot the name of the booths but you can look at this delicious photo of his cheesecake!

U-District Fair 2023 - Cheesecake

Onto the booths that we visited, here are some of my favorites!

Tita Bun Collective & JI Designs

As a filipina, I was excited to find a specifically Filipina owned brand! I saw their hilarious tote bag hanging on a rack and knew I needed to go in to take a further look. I met Nikki (owner of Tita Bun Co) and Jireh (owner of JI Designs) who were both funny and sweet human beings. Please support your local Filipina owned businesses!

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I did buy the Baby Angel Hat in the brown shade with the Filipino sun on it!

Tita Bun Co - Hat

Blue Kettle Books

Blue Kettle Books is a cute little mobile traveling bookstore. I didn’t buy a book but I did buy this cute bird poster for my dad.

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R’Sential Candle

R’Sential Candles is a family black-owned business based of out Kent, WA. In their candle making process they pride themselves on perfecting our fragrances through quality of oils, using no dyes or artificial colors and the best grade of soy wax. My boyfriend bought the Seattle Hike Candle. The scent is described as a rich, mysterious blend of masculine tonka bean and soft rosewood on a base of black amber resin. Highlighted with hints of fresh citrus and cedarwood.

Seattle Hike Candle

Pacific North Tess

Tessa is the owner of the brand and she started her business at the beginning of 2021 as a creative outlet and hobby. Later that year, she was able to make this business into a full time job! Some of my personal favorite items from her shop were the mushroom themed ones!

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Tough Tatas

The artist is Renny and she creates the beautiful pottery for this business! You can find her on insta here as well. My personal favorite is the “Daddy is a State of Mind” mug. Not only because the mug is cute but it reminds me of Pedro Pascal saying that in one interview.

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There were so many booths that I could talk about, but those were the five booths that were my favorite. I am excited to see what next year’s U District Street Fair will bring! What was your favorite booth?

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A special thanks to The U District Partnership for collaborating with Her Campus UW for this event.

Zaira Bardos

Washington '22

seattle, wa writer & filmmaker Editorial Assistant for Pulley Press Publishing