Cities/YVR

Lunar New Year is about strengthening family bonds, creating beautiful art and ringing in an auspicious Year of the Ox for all, and LunarFest Vancouver provides an opportunity to do all that and more with a series of physical and virtual events that highlight stunning cultural collaborations between both local artists and those half a world away.

Events include: an online series of family stories from Slovakia, Mauritius, Mongolia and Vietnam told through song; a virtual gallery of family portraits from around the world; and “Family Untitled,” a contemporary dance performance exploring festival themes of family and community by choreographer Justine Fraser. It will be performed by the Coastal City Ballet and streamed at lunarfestvancouver.ca on February 28.

Festival highlights include a show-stopping series, “Family Ties,” featuring eight lanterns on display at Jack Poole Plaza starting February 11. The giant lanterns were designed by two Indigenous families from opposite ends of the ocean: one from the family of B.C. Musqueam artist Susan Point, and one from the Pavavaljung family of artists from the Paiwan nation in Taiwan.

Experience Taiwanese culture through “Melting Pot, I Think Not,” a film project by director Jessica Sung. The docuseries, filmed in Taiwan specifically for Vancouver’s LunarFest, highlights hot pot traditions of Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian and Malaysian families. The festival also encourages local Canadian families to submit pictures of their traditional dinners at lunarfestvancouver.ca to be shared as part of the online installation.

LunarFest, various locations and online, Feb. 11-28, free, lunarfestvancouver.ca