Details of Chinese New Year celebrations in Birmingham revealed.
The Year of the Snake will be slithering into Birmingham as the city’s annual Chinese New Year celebrations make a welcome return.
The area in and around the Chinese Quarter of the city centre will be dazzled by colourful lions and dragons during the course of the weekend of Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd February.
Details of the celebrations have been announced by Birmingham Chinese Festival Committee and Birmingham Hippodrome theatre, who are co-producing the event with support from Southside District.
Festivities will start in the city centre on Saturday 1st February with lion and dragon processions in partnership with Bullring and Grand Central.
They then continue on Sunday 2 February with the UberEats Festival Stage at the heart of the showpiece event in Hippodrome Square. The packed programme will showcase the talent within the local Chinese community and include a range of traditional and modern music, dance and theatre performances for all to enjoy.
Across the weekend, Southside will also come alive with a host of other attractions including craft markets, food stalls, and family activities. The city will then welcome in the Year of the Snake on Sunday with a spectacular firework finale.
Lawrence Barton, chair of Southside District, explained that more than 38,000 people attended the celebrations last year, and that he hoped to see even more this year.
Mr Barton said: “We’re so lucky to have such an enthusiastic and energetic Chinese community here on Southside and they really are planning to bring the area alive to celebrate the Lunar New Year.”
Jeffrey Yap, chair of the Birmingham Chinese Festival Committee, said: “This year’s festival will see the return of the traditional waking of the Lion ‘Dim Jing’, Dragon dances and Pom Pom, our ten-foot giant Panda. It’s going to be a fantastic weekend!”.