Colourful traditional dances, spectacular light shows, Chinese food stalls and family-friendly celebrations will light up the city for Chinese New Year.
The Year of the Pig festivities will take place from February 2 until February 17, with February 5 as Chinese New Year's Day. Every day during the festival there will be performances, street food, firecrackers, acrobatics and dragon dance workshops from the Queen Victoria Market to Docklands.
Events include cultural performances by community groups from 11am on Saturday February 2, including the Lion Dance and light installations, and the official opening of the festival at Queensbridge Square at 8pm.
MasterChef 2017 winner Diana Chen is giving cooking demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday February 2-3, 6-7pm at Queensbridge Square. If you prefer eating to cooking there will also be lots of Chinese food to snack on like dumplings, spring rolls, savoury pancakes and sweet rice cakes.
Melbourne Museum will be hosting a family day on Saturday, February 9 where you can try out a bunch of hands-on activities (like lantern-making, calligraphy and paper-cutting) as well as enjoy cultural performances from local and international artists.
The popular Dragon Boat Regatta is on Saturday and Sunday February 16-17 at the Harbour Promenade, Docklands. There's a social competition on the 16th where anyone is welcome to form a team and participate. Sunday, February 17 is when the real action happens however with dragon boat clubs competing for glory.
The festival's Closing Ceremony is at Melbourne Museum on Sunday February 17 at 6pm. There will be a lantern parade, fire dragons, glowing lions and a closing ceremony dance where kids and their families are invited to dance with the performers and learn the traditional routines.