Cities/YVR

LunarFest opening ceremony
Sat., Jan. 29, 2022
Public festival
Opening ceremony: 11 am – 12 pm; Workshop and performance: 1 pm – 3 pm, Festival runs until Feb. 21
Free
lunarfestvancouver.ca

Vancouver’s annual Lunar New Year celebration is lighting up even the darkest of times with the inimitable LunarFestt — and with nearly a month of both digital and in-person programming on the lineup, you can celebrate the Year of the Tiger no matter where you are.

To kick off the celebration, the opening ceremony of LunarFest Vancouver and The Lantern City will be held at the Ocean Art Works on Granville Island on Jan. 29. Mayor Kennedy Stewart and Director General Angela Liu from the Taiwanese government will be in attendance, and the street team from Cirque du Soleil’s Alegría will spend the afternoon performing with the lanterns lighting up the island. A Lunar Craft workshop will also be offered all afternoon — perfect for the young and the young at heart.

After the kickoff, 2022 celebrations during the Lunar New Year will be held across Vancouver at šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl’e7énḵ Square (north of the Vancouver Art Gallery), West End Robson (at Cardero) and the Orpheum, as well as a series of virtual programming.

The Lantern City installation, a glittering art series that features lanterns designed by local and international artists, will be open until Feb. 21 at Granville Island and until Feb. 9 at šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl’e7énḵ Square. On Feb. 1, the Harmonia String Ensemble and the Vancouver Zion Mission Choir will be holding a concert themed around togetherness at the Orpheum. The committee has also created a collaboration called Lunar Eats with several restaurants in the West End — check it out here.

Participating artists for the Lantern City in 2022 include local artists from various Canadian communities — such as Indigenous, South Asian and Filipino — and include Jody Broomfield, Jag Nagra, Sandeep Johal, Danvic Briones, Paige Bowman and Heather Sparks; international artists are represented by the renowned works of Taiwanese painter Hung Tung and the Rukai artist Pacake Taugadhu. There’s perhaps no better time or place to see some of the greatest cultural art the city has to offer.