On Saturday, May 16, 2026, we’re kicking off our BACKYARD series with the Asian Night Market at STACKT — a lively celebration of Asian Heritage Month right in the heart of Toronto. This year’s Asian Night Market was specially curated by our hospitality partner, Highbell Hospitality, led by Trevor Lui.
We sat down with Trevor to get a behind-the-scenes look at what’s to come from this year’s Asian Night Market.
Trevor, you’ve been a pillar in Toronto’s food scene for years. What were the ‘non-negotiables’ you looked for when selecting vendors for this year’s market?
With this year’s Asian Night Market, we really wanted to make sure we shone a light on the wide variety of cultures that Asia represents. While we’ve previously featured mostly East Asian offerings, we wanted to tap into Western Asian – such as Lebanon or Iran – and South Asian businesses too. We’re excited to have West Asia represented from the music side, and to bring the flavours and wares of South Asia through Indian food, Tamil food, handmade goods, and more.
How has the concept of “Asian Night Market” evolved in Toronto over the last few years, and how is STACKT pushing that boundary?
When we first started Asian Night Market, we were coming out of one of the COVID lockdowns with the desire to create a Spring event that could focus on community. Coming out of the pandemic, there was a more unified voice from Asian communities and an added importance to highlight the heritage of those cultures, so naturally we thought “why not host an event that could be a celebration of all that Asian culture has to offer?”
Our first Asian Night Market had only eight or nine vendors and we were sold out within half an hour. Fast forward a few years, we’ve now hosted over 14,000 people for Asian Night Market, making it one of our biggest celebrations of the year. I’m very proud to see how the appetite for this event has grown throughout the years and for us and STACKT to be hosting one of the biggest events to represent Asian heritage in the city.
What inspired you while curating the line-up for this year’s event?
To us, this was all about going out and giving opportunities to small businesses in our community. With over 14,000+ people walking through our gates for Asian Night Market, this is a great time to be able to showcase as many local businesses within the Asian community that we can. When we were curating, we wanted to bring people who are embedded within our community who can then share their food, entrepreneurship and love for culture with all the attendees.
What are some of the highlights of this year’s Asian Night Market?
We have over 50 different Asian-owned vendors at this year’s market, bringing a mix of food and drinks, including baked treats, classic dishes being cooked over an open fire, soups, drinks, and everything in between. We also have a variety of artisans selling their handmade items throughout the market.
Entertainment is always important to us at Asian Night Market, so we have a tremendous line-up of live music, live cultural performances like the Chinese lion dancers, DJs spinning all night long, mahjong lessons, and more.
Can you tell us about a specific vendor whose story really resonated with you during the curation process?
House of Khaleej, led by Bahraini-Canadian Chef Suman Ali Sayed. A couple months ago, Chef Suman and I were meant to be working an event together, when she was grounded in Bahrain due to the conflict. At the time, a group of chef colleagues jumped to support her and execute her vision for the event. Chef Suman is now back in Canada, and will be joining us at Asian Night Market to showcase her love of her culture and the food that comes from it.
Beyond the food, these markets are about gathering. What role do you hope this event plays for the local community?
At its roots, Asian Night Market is about the education of the culture and history behind Asian food. In Western society, our understanding of what Asian food means to us is very different to the lived experiences of the people who have left their homes across the world to travel to a new place, bringing a taste of their cultures with them. There are many dishes across Asian cultures that have been popularized in North America with such rich histories that people here don’t always know. Food is a vessel for storytelling, and my hope is an event like this helps to show the true meaning behind these dishes.
Describe the perfect 1 hour at the Asian Night Market. Where are we standing, what are we eating, and what are we hearing?
Start by closing your eyes and try to let the market encapsulate all of your senses. Take the moment to smell and to listen – without even touching, tasting or seeing – and what you’ll experience is the flow of conversation, you’ll hear the jangling of jewelry with music playing in the background, you’ll smell the searing of food on the grill. You’ll get to see the beauty of coming together as a community. Take a walk through the entire market to really get the full picture of it before you decide what you want to experience. One hour is definitely not enough but if you only had the one, let it really encompass your senses.
What are you most excited about for this year’s Asian Night Market?
It’s a great time for the city. With the World Cup coming up and bringing in so many new people to Toronto, being able to showcase the Asian diaspora in our one-night-only festival in the biggest community space in the city, it couldn’t be more exciting.
Ready to experience BACKYARD: Asian Night Market with us? Get your PRIORITY ACCESS tickets to skip the line to experience the market without the wait. General admission is free on a first-come, first-serve basis. We’ll see you there!