Get out of the house this Lunar New Year with Chatswood's series of events, installations and activations. The North Shore suburb is celebrating the Year of the Tiger in style with jaw-dropping art installations, its very own comedy festival and a heap of delicious food. Add this nearly month-long festival to your calendar and invoke all the luck, prosperity and good health for the new year ahead with some fabulous activities and feasts to boot.
This year's Lunar New Year festival will bring back some events Chatswood's iteration is know for with some exciting new happenings thrown in for good measure. Don't miss Chatswood's inaugural Lunar New Year Comedy Festival on Saturday February 12. The two-performance festival will see a line-up of hilarious Asian Australian comedians take the stage including Alex Lee (The Feed), Lawrence Leung (Why Are You Like This?), Michael Hing (The Feed), Annie Louey (The Project), Diana Nguyen (Phi and Me), Suraj Kolarkar (Triple M), Suren Jayemanne (Tonightly with Tom Ballard) and Harry Jun. If soothing melodies are more your thing head to the Year of the Tiger in Concert on February 5 with stunning performances from young musicians from the Conservatorium of Music playing traditional, folk and classical pieces, plus martial arts demonstrations, lion dancers and contemporary dance performances.
Art plays a big part, with exhibitions and installations popping up around Chatswood. Head to Willoughby’s Incinerator Art Space for group shows and works from Australian artists exploring cross-cultural themes including Tracey Moffatt, Tim Johnson, Owen Leong, Ginger Jingzhe Li, and Huajie Zhang. There will even be a larger than life inflatable tiger and her cubs taking up residence at the Concourse Reflection Pool.
What would a festival be without the food? Never fear, the Chatswood Year of the Tiger Festival has got you covered with their sense-tingling Golden Market. Popping up in Chatswood Mall from 9am on Thursdays and Fridays and on Saturday February 5 you can feast from over 35 stalls laden with food from all across Asia. Throughout the festival period you can also follow some of Chatswood's exciting food trails to get a taste of the diverse and delicious local businesses. Explore the Festival Eats interactive map here or if you want to hit the streets for sweets there's also a dessert trail you can follow here. Let your food adventure begin!
The festival runs from January 27 until February 20 with a myriad exciting events. Be sure to check the full program and plan your visit here.