‘We were overwhelmed.’ Howard County Asian food festival participants faced overcrowding, hourslong traffic

Hourslong lines, bumper-to-bumper traffic, sold-out food and jam-packed crowds left many attendees of Saturday’s Asia Collective Night Market and county officials frustrated and asking for accountability. While the festival was permitted for 25,000 attendees, a Howard County Police Department spokesperson said Monday that “far more attended who were not ticketed” and that event organizers failed to heed department recommendations to address the growing crowd size and parking needs.