Filipino, Jamaican, Hawaiian and more food trucks set for Lakewood’s anniversary bash
The City of Lakewood celebrates 25 years Saturday, Sept. 25, with food and entertainment at Colonial Plaza, including the debut of an Ivan the Gorilla exhibit.
The party was originally slated for Sept. 18, but a weather forecast of heavy winds and hail led the city to postpone by one week.
Though slightly truncated from its original form, it will be one of the first major events at the park and community center since the $2 million project wrapped in 2019, said communications manager Jim Kopriva.
“It’s been sitting empty with nothing to do,” he said, “so we’re pretty excited to get that show on the road again.”
Culinary options at the anniversary party range from Hawaiian (Mix Poke Bar) and Jamaican (Gigo’s Jamaican Grill) to Mexican (El Puerto Ensenada) and Filipino (Uncle Mike’s Filipino Comfort Food). The affable Bobby Shorts, known for his live music in a Shell parking lot in Lakewood, will be on-site with his food truck, Hamhock Jones Soul Shack.
A few of the faces are familiar from other pop-up events, including the Lakewood Farmers Market, which will wrap its 2021 season Sept. 24.
That’s true of Old Red Barn Popping Co., which will be making kettle corn to order.
On the sweet side, Bliss Creamery from University Place will post up with ice cream, Kona Ice with shaved ice, and Funnel of Love with funnel cakes and elephant ears, naturally.
Lakewood icon Original House of Donuts, which closed its Tacoma store but opened one in Lacey earlier this year, will also be slinging the good stuff.
Activities will include performances by community groups representing the city’s diverse population: music from the Vynok Choir Group in honor of Russian residents; dances from the Guamanian nonprofit Guma Imahe and Bollywood with Live2Dance; and others highlighting the cultures of Mexico, the Caribbean, Samoa, West Africa and Korea.
City officials, including Mayor Don Anderson and members of the 1996 incorporation board, will address the crowd.
Visitors at the event will be some of the first to see a collection of artifacts about Ivan the Gorilla’s time at the B&I Shopping Center in Lakewood, where the animal was held from 1967 to 1994 before moving to Atlanta. The Lakewood Historical Society worked with Earl Bogart, the director of the Ivan Foundation, to curate the show. Copies of Ivan’s artwork, T-shirts and more will be available for sale during the grand opening, according to a release.
Lakewood’s population has grown by nearly 10 percent in the last decade, per Census Bureau data released last month, to more than 63,000 residents. Already known as a diverse area of Pierce County, the official 2020 count revealed even more diversity: Residents identifying as Black, Hispanic and multiracial each increased by more than 1 percent, the city said in its Sept. 10 bulletin.
It is now among 15 cities in the region where less than half the population is white, meaning not Hispanic or Latino, said Kopriva, jumping from 46 percent to 54 percent.
Only about 7.5 percent of Pierce County is Black, according to Census data, but almost 13 percent of Lakewood is. Similarly, the city has a higher density of Asian, Native American and Pacific Islander, and Hispanic residents than the county at large.
Originally inhabited by the Nisqually tribe and later known as Prairie in the 19th century, residents of this area south of Tacoma voted to incorporate as a city in March 1995, electing the first council members that fall. On February 28, 1996, Lakewood became the second largest city in Pierce County, a position it still holds ahead of Puyallup, University Place and Bonney Lake.
LAKEWOOD 25TH ANNIVERSARY PARTY
▪ Colonial Plaza, 6108 Motor Ave. SW, Lakewood, cityoflakewood.us/celebrate25
▪ When: Saturday, Sept. 25, 4-8 p.m.
▪ Details: food trucks and performances; on-street parking available, plus lots of Little Church on the Prairie, ACU, Chamber of Commerce and Columbia Bank
This story was originally published September 20, 2021 at 5:00 AM.