The Horse is strong, energetic, outgoing, honest and extremely intelligent. As millions of Chinese welcome in the year of the Horse on January 31, cities across Australia will also celebrate this auspicious event.

Melbourne

In Melbourne, the city’s Dockland precinct will host two weeks of Chinese New Year celebrations starting on Thursday, January 30. The showstopper is a spectacular 100 metre-long, 10 metre-high illuminated Chinese dragon – the Docklands Dragon.
Opening to the public at 6pm on Thursday,  January 30, 2014, visitors will be encouraged to come down and view a team of Chinese artisans put the finishing touches on the Docklands Dragon. After the dragon has been completed the installation will remain in place until February 16, 2014, during this time visitors can enjoy nightly entertainment such as traditional Chinese music, dance and street theatre, merchant stalls and a dragon boat exhibition.
The custom built Docklands Dragon, over 100 metres long and standing 10 metres high at the head, was handmade by renowned Chinese designers Sichuan Tianyu, the company behind the Rotterdam Light Festival in the Netherlands, the most extensive Chinese light show in Europe.
The Docklands Dragon is located at the corner of Harbour Esplanade and Bourke Street. For more information: www.visitvictoria.com/docklandsdragon 

Melbourne’s Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations kick off with the sacred awakening ceremony of the world’s largest processional Chinese Dragon – the Millennium Dragon, which will parade the city streets on February 2, 2014 beginning in Chinatown in Little Bourke Street. In line with the Melbourne Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations, the Chinese Museum will also offer free admission to the public on February 2, 2014. For more information visit: www.chinesemuseum.com.au/

Sydney

The City of Sydney hosts Australia’s most elaborate Chinese New Year celebrations spanning the 14 days of the festival. The celebrations include Asian art themed exhibitions, Lunar new year feasts and markets, history tours by bike, dragon boat racing and a Dragon Ball, all culminating with Sydney’s world famous annual Chinese New Year Twilight Parade on February 2, which attracts tens of thousands of spectators.

*Pictured: Australian-Chinese artist Hu Ming’s Safety and Peace in Four Seasons (Detail). (Reproduced courtesy City of Sydney) For a full listing of Chinese New Year art exhibitions in Sydney, click here.

This year’s Year of the Horse themed-parade begins at the Sydney Town Hall at 8pm on Sunday, February 2, and winds its way through Chinatown to a fireworks display at midnight at Cockle Bay in Darling Harbour. The spectacle includes prancing ponies, martial arts displays, projections from The Electric Canvas lighting up the facades of Sydney’s CBD buildings, performers, musicians, colourful horse-themed floats from the local Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese communities, and much much more. For a full listing of Chinese New Year events in Sydney visit: www.sydneychinesenewyear.com

Adelaide

Chinatown Adelaide in conjunction with the Adelaide City Council will again host its Chinatown Adelaide Lunar New Year Street Festival, encompassing performers, stalls, lion dancers, live music and family friendly activities on Saturday, February 1, 2014 from 4pm. The festival spills out from Moonta Street to Gouger Street and draws on Adelaide’s sister-city relationship with Qingdao. The festival also includes the Massive Street Restaurant – a massive outdoor dining spectacle along Gouger Street. Tables for eight are $88 and can be booked online. For more information visit: www.cityofadelaide.com.au/whats_on/chinatown-adelaide-lunar-new-year-street-party

Brisbane will hold a number of events on January 31, with art and cultural performances, a Lunar New Year market, as well as a kick start to the new year with a firecracker display at the Chinatown Mall on Brunswick Street. For a full listing of Chinese New Year events in Brisbane, visit: www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/whats-on/featured/chinese-new-year