Canberra's growing Chinese community was a boon for at least one National Multicultural Festival stallholder.
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Gungahlin restaurant Jasmine House this year swapped sweet and sour pork for traditional Chinese street food for expats missing home.
Oscar Liu, working at the Jasmine House stall based in the festival's China Village, said a growing Asian population had allowed the family-run restaurant to offer some traditional Cantonese favourites.
The 2016 Census showed 2.9 per cent of Canberra's population was born in China, an increase on 1.8 per cent in 2011.
"We usually do the Chinese-Western mixed food, suited for the local taste, but now we have really traditional dishes as well," Mr Liu said.
"Anyone can come to taste but sometimes it's really spicy with a lot of chillies in the bowl, which looks amazing but some people are scared to try it.
"We welcome anyone to come and try it."
Cheri Ji, shaving jelly noodles from a block of slow cooked bean powder and water, said the Jasmine House dishes had also appealed to Westerners preparing to travel to China.
"A lot of Western people go overseas and really want the real, traditional Chinese food, so I introduce them to some and they love it," she said.
Bonner mum Suzan Sube took daughters Efon and Neane Luwala, 13 and 10 respectively, to the festival on Saturday and Sunday - a tradition since they moved to Canberra from Sydney about four years ago.
The trio relished trying dishes from countries around the world, they said. Efon preferred Middle Eastern food, while Neane said her favourite dish was lasagne.
"We like to be together with the people, we like to see our communities, we like to taste the food," Ms Sube said.
The National Multicultural Festival wrapped up on Sunday afternoon. Final attendance figures were not available Sunday night.
ACT Policing said the crowd was reasonably well-behaved with no notable incidents recorded. There was some controversy ahead of the event after the number of liquor licences was slashed from 65 last year to 21 this year, a decision organisers said was prompted by concerns from ACT Policing about alcohol fuelled violence despite only three arrests last year.
