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Vancouver’s annual celebration of Japanese culture will take place this year on side streets around the Downtown Eastside, instead of its usual site in Oppenheimer Park, where an unusually high number of people are living in tents.

The Powell Street Festival, a celebration of Japanese arts, food and culture described as the largest of its kind in Canada, has been held every August long weekend for the past four decades.

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With only a few exceptions, it has taken place in Oppenheimer Park on Powell Street, the historic heart of the local Japanese Canadian community until its forcible removal by the federal government during the Second World War.

But with Vancouver’s homeless population at record highs, according to last month’s annual count, the number of residents living in Oppenheimer Park has soared. So the festival plans to go ahead this year mostly outside the park.

This year’s festival, which includes live music, martial arts performances and food stalls, will mostly be held on side streets in the Downtown Eastside, including Alexander, Jackson, and Dunlevy streets, said the Powell Street Festival Society’s executive director, Emiko Morita. In previous years, festival representatives would generally be in the park doing preparation in the lead-up to the event, Morita said, and Oppenheimer residents had voluntarily moved to near the perimeter of the park for the duration of the event.