Content adapted from Long Beach Post | April 6, 2025

Scenes of celebration from Long Beach’s 17th annual Cambodia Town Parade

At the blast of confetti, they marched.

Hundreds lined Anaheim Street on Sunday for the 17th Cambodian New Year celebration in Long Beach.

The two-day festival in the city’s Cambodia Town neighborhood features food and music, storytelling, kickboxing demonstrations and other activities.

On Sunday morning, about 70 groups marched in a parade that began near the Anaheim Street entrance of MacArthur Park and ended at Long Beach City College’s campus on Pacific Coast Highway.

The morning began with an interfaith benediction and included speeches from local dignitaries such as Councilmembers Suely Saro and Megan Kerr, as well as Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn.

The Cambodia New Year starts April 14 — marking the end of the harvest season. Sunday’s event commemorated its arrival as the Year of the Snake.

Organizers also spoke of the bloody Khmer Rouge takeover in Cambodia and the resiliency of those refugees who fled to the United States. An estimated 20,000 Cambodians live in Long Beach, the largest concentration outside that country.

Dancers, swathed in brilliant white and blue silks, performed the traditional “blessing dance” that marks the opening of Cambodian celebrations. Following their finish, performers blasted confetti overhead and the parade commenced.

Marching west on Anaheim Street, girls twirled parasols as adults in authentic Khmer attire waved both Cambodian and U.S. flags. On colorful floats, children waved, women sang karaoke and a drum troupe broke out in Khmer song. One group of kickboxers in traditional shorts demonstrated labokator, an age-old martial art that doubles as a performative dance.

The parade continued north to the college’s nearby campus where a festival continues through 6 p.m. Sunday.