Join us on Sunday, 3rd February 2019 to celebrate Chinese New Year in Lancaster!
Find streets full of tasty international food, exciting funfair rides for the family and entertainment throughout the day with artists, musicians and martial arts taking the stage in Market Square.
Join us at our 12th Anniversary Gala as we toast the end of the Festival’s programme and the start of the Year of the Rooster.
Coinciding with the Chinese Lantern Festival (also known as Yuanxiao Jie), enjoy an evening inspired by the nostalgia of early 20th Century Shanghai.
Performances including renown Guzheng soloist Zilan Li who has recorded music for Oscar winning film ‘The Last Emperor’ and performed as a soloist with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, traditional Chinese Lion Dance, and Lancaster University’s Music Society Big Band performing a selection of classic songs from the golden era of swing and jazz.
Please note alcohol and a light meal will be served at this event. Event is suitable for children under supervision.
Buy your tickets on EventBrite
Red Dragonfly Productions, the team behind the critically acclaimed ‘Diao Chan’ and ‘The Autumn of Han’ are proud to present an evening of new writing from first time playwrights.
Red Dragonfly launched Taking Flight a competition aimed at finding three new short plays from writers within the British East Asian, South Asian, and South East Asian communities. From the many entries, three plays were chosen to be taken through to final production in a unique evening of theatre.
Lancaster’s historic squares and streets become the backdrop for original work commissioned through the Lancaster Chinese Arts Festival’s Artists Residency programme.
Gale Chen’s work responds to the unique spaces of Lancaster’s city centre and central to her work is her exploration of both British and Chinese traditions of storytelling through fabric and embroidery.
Lancaster’s history is retold through events that have shaped the city and its people over the centuries on Chinese style embroidered plaques and decorative roses adorning the tree lined avenue as Gale Chen’s contribution to the festival.
PuppetCraft presents MONKEY! A fantastic production following the adventures of a comical, fantastical superhero, inspired by ‘Journey to the West’ a classic of Chinese literature.
The Lancaster Chinese Arts Festival will host two versions, a full theatrical performance of Monkey! for anyone from 4+ years in Preston and SuperMonkey a fun singalong experience for children
from 3-6 years in Lancaster.
Also try your hand at making and performing with the artist behind the production with our Shadow Puppet Making Workshops.
Brought to exuberant life by seldom seen exquisitely crafted marionettes, leaping and swinging, acrobatically, authentic, old Chinese shadow puppets.
Features enchanting live music and snappy raps and witty words written for PuppetCraft by the brilliant, award winning poet Michael Rosen, Children’s Laureate 2007–2009, famed for “Going
on a Bear Hunt”.
For 25 years PuppetCraft has been touring far and wide, becoming one of Britain’s top puppet companies.
Book tickets for Preston – click here
Book tickets for Lancaster – click here
Professional playwright and screenwriter Daniel Matthew will lead a two hour
workshop exploring the different ways that writers generate material. Using
both source material and memory; participants will take part in group
discussion and writing exercises as they find out the differences and
similarities in writing what you know personally and writing what’s
unfamiliar.
For further information or to enquire about booking onto the workshop please
email: vfletcher@dukes-lancaster.org
or ring: 01524 598522
Lancaster’s streets will come alive again with colour and sound as Chinese New Year comes round.
The Manchester Airports and Hainan Airlines Stage in Market Square will feature live performances from Pagoda Arts Chinese Youth Orchestra, Wanlin Dance School, More Music Long Walk Chinese Ensemble, Northern Dragons Martial Arts, Blackpool Qilin Team and Lancaster’s own Batala Samba team. Rock and blues singer Will Tang will be headlining the stage as crowds await the parade…
The Chinese New Year Parade start at 2pm on Penny Street at the top of Lancaster making its way through the town and finishing in Market Square filling the heart of hte city with vivid colour and the booming beat of the drums!
Explore Festival Street Markets along Market Street and Cheapside where you can find the tastiest food from around the world and exciting gifts and more in one place.
After the success of The Autumn of Han Red Dragonfly returns with another exciting adaptation of a Chinese classic. Based on the ancient Chinese legend of DiaoChan, part of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, this production has been called a Chinese Macbeth, and brings to the stage an epic story of lust, jealousy and revenge.
The Empire is in turmoil and the tyrant DongZhuo, with the great warrior Lu Bu at his shoulder, has made an eight year old boy Emperor and is ruling as chancellor. As he systematically puts to the sword those who oppose him the minister WangYun fears for his life and that of his daughter.
WangYun confides these fears to a singing girl called DiaoChan, a courtesan of his household and friend of his daughter, and when, at a feast thrown by WangYun, both DongZhuo and LuBu show a lustful interest in her DiaoChan comes up with a plan that could solve both their problems – a plan that would see DongZhuo fall and see her rise to the ranks of the nobility.
Red Dragonfly Productions will be joined by a pre-show performances by More Music Long Walk Chinese Ensemble with a repertoire of Chinese folk music.
Cast: Angelo Paragoso, Arthur Lee, Andrew Wong, Benjamin Lok, Siu-See Hung and Michelle Yim
Adaptation by Ross Ericson
A collaboration with Grist to the Mill Productions
Many thanks to the support of Arts Council England
A fantastic opportunity to be part of the festival parade at the Lancaster Chinese New Year Carnival!
Our resident artist Pui Lee will be setting up studio at Lancaster City Museum in the run-up to Lancaster Chinese New Year over 4 days. She will be exploring the Chinese folktale of ‘Flower Dragon’ through papercraft and willow lantern making.
On the Saturday before the Carnival, she will open the doors to her studio at the Museum for you to join her and create your own piece of art.
Then be a part of the Chinese New Year Carnival parade with your creation on Sunday, 31st January 2016 at 2pm alongside the mythical Chinese dragons, lions and qilins through the streets of Lancaster city centre.
Please note, all children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
Limited spaces! Click on the link to book a place on EventBrite.co.uk: http://goo.gl/dy1Lqk
Many thanks to the support of Arts Council England
Live performances from 11am of dance, music and theatre throughout the day with artists from across the UK.
See the lions and dragons roar into town alongside the Festival street markets along the city’s historic streets with a range of international foods, gifts and more. The Lycamobile Stage in Market Square will include performances of dance, music and martial arts from Pagoda Arts, WanLin School of Chinese Dance, Northern Dragons Lion Dance Team, Blackpool Qilin Martial Arts Team and guest performances from Batala!
This is followed by the parade – which features returning favourites Northern Dragons and Batala to lead the way – starts at 2pm making its way along Penny Street down through the city centre and through into Market Square.
You can also take part by joining the art workshops in the week before the carnival and make your own lantern! Find out more on the Arts Workshops page.
Taylors Funfair will also be back to fill Market Square with funfair rides to keep the little nippers happy all day!
Find out who will be at the Festival Markets – click here.
Many thanks to the headline sponsor – Lycamobile – and our funders – Arts Council and LancasterBID. And additional sponsorship from Lancaster University Confucius Institute.
The Hua Xian Chinese Society presents an evening with the theme ‘Golden Era’ – harking back to the glamourous heydays of jazz and swing with a Chinese twist.
Join other distinguished guests at Lancaster Town Hall’s prestigious Banqueting suite to enjoy a Chinese feast and enjoy performances by:
The evening also includes the Hua Xian Chinese Society’s annual prize giving ceremony recognising the work of its volunteers.
Join us on North Beach in central Morecambe to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the cockling tragedy in 2004.
There will be a small decorated tented village with food and hot drinks, lanterns to decorate, a sculptural bonfire, music and singing.
Send your wishes and thoughts out on the tide and in the wind.
“The moon laughs the clouds cry
And a seagull screams at the night’s sky
And the sad sea sighs – goodbye”
Lemn Sissay – The Long Walk