Chinese New Year 2012

Chinese New Year Festival Launch, Belmore Park, Sydney Fri 20 Jan, 6-8pm
The fuse for Sydney’s 2012 Chinese New Year Festival is lit when Belmore Park transforms into a feast of colours and flavours in a free celebration in central Sydney. Traditional ‘eye-dotting’ will bring dragons and lions to life while firecrackers will frighten off 2011’s ill tidings. There’ll be live entertainment from international performers, a sneak preview of the Twilight Parade and, of course, some incredible food. 

Chinese New Year Markets, Belmore Park, Sydney 20-22 Jan, 4-11pm

The sights, sounds and spices of an Asian marketplace come to Sydney in a blaze of lions, dragons and Sichuan cuisine at the Chinese New Year Festival Markets. MasterChef contestants Adam Liaw and Alvin Quah will dish out mouth-watering specialties like noodles and dumplings to celebrate the Lunar New Year while visiting chefs from Chengdu will fire up your tastebuds via sizzling Sichuan food stalls. The soundtrack to this smorgasbord is just as varied with DJs, Asian pop stars, Korean rockers and karaoke performers battling it out on stage while Bruce Lee My Brother: Genesis of the Dragon plays out in a blur of kung-fu fighting on the big screen.  

Chinese New Year Twilight Parade, Town Hall, George St, Sydney  Sun 29 Jan, 8-9.45pm
With over 2,900 performers, the Twilight Parade is the centrepiece of Sydney’s Chinese New Year celebrations. Under lavender twilight, the parade weaves its serpentine way from Town Hall to Chinatown under a sky illuminated by giant façade projections. This year, in addition to the usual street art, dancers and acrobats, representations from Chengdu are bringing a giant panda float, singers and dancers. They will join groups from Beijing, floats from local Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese communities, and a shimmering tide of lanterns, fire breathing and martial arts culminating in a Dragon Ball like the one held at Sydney’s Trocadero from the 1930s to the 1950s. And following the Parade there’ll be a stunning display of - what else? - fireworks.

Dragon Boat Races, Cockle Bay Darling Harbour 4-5 Feb, 8am-5pm

Dragon boat racing has a long and proud history dating back to the Zhou Dynasty (770BC to 256BC) and endures in Sydney’s Chinese New Year celebrations as a symbol of good fortune and a sign of intense power. But before these 12-metre long and brightly decorated boats with their 20 rowers battle it out in the waters of Cockle Bay, each boat must undergo an “awakening” ceremony done by dabbing red paint on the eyes of each dragon boat's ‘blind’ figurehead to bring them to life.