The Little Mekong Night Market will return to University Avenue in St. Paul this weekend after a four-year hiatus.

Organizers say this year’s two-day event will be their biggest yet, featuring dozens of artists, food vendors and performances radiating out from the intersection of University and Western avenues.

“It’s bigger in terms of our footprint — we’re working with more private businesses to hold events on their property,” said VaMegn Thoj, executive director of the Asian Economic Development Association.

“We also anticipate our biggest turnout as well,” he added.

When it was last held in 2019, the event drew 30,000 people over the Fourth of July weekend.

This year’s Night Market will run from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday. A full list of attractions can be found at littlemekong.com.

The event, which was first held in 2013, has been canceled in past years because of the COVID-19 pandemic and costs associated with hiring police officers to provide security.

Organizers hope to make the Night Market experience a permanent attraction on University Avenue in coming years, with the Little Mekong Cooperative Market, Thoj said.

The AEDA is working to renovate its headquarters at 422 University Ave. W. to accommodate a marketplace for “food vendors, artists, makers, and micro-entrepreneurs to generate broad economic development,” according to its website.

The cooperative will celebrate “the many cultures of the neighborhood, while uniquely providing representation of St. Paul’s Southeast Asian communities along the Green Line corridor,” the website says.

Thoj said the organization has already raised $3 million in funding for the renovation and aims to begin construction in the first quarter of 2025, with plans to open six months to a year after work begins.

Once the cooperative is up and running, the AEDA is planning to redevelop its parking lot on Aurora Avenue into a residential and retail complex with outdoor public spaces.

“It’s a pretty sizable project,” Thoj said. “The return on this investment will be a thriving cultural business district on University Avenue.”

Planning for the project began six years ago, but work was interrupted by the pandemic, he added.

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