Celebrate Year of the Snake in Preston with free dance, music and martial arts event

The lion dance at a previous Lunar New Year celebration

A free programme of cultural activities is taking place in Preston to celebrate Lunar New Year.

The University of Central Lancashire will welcome in the Year of the Snake with a variety of traditional dances, music and martial arts.

The event, run by the University’s Confucius Institute, will include lion dancing, Chinese and samba drumming, Tai Chi Fan with Kung Fu, poetry, quizzes and a Chinese traditional costume catwalk show.

Children from English Martyrs’ Primary School and Preston’s People’s Choir will also participate and perform some Chinese songs. Speeches will be given by University Vice-Chancellor Professor Graham Baldwin and the Mayor of Preston Councillor Phil Crowe.

The event runs from 2.30pm to 5pm on Wednesday 29 January. It is being held firstly in Foster Square and then moves inside to Social Space, both on the Preston Campus. There is no need to register.

Sunny Liu, University of Central Lancashire Confucius Institute Director, said: “The Lunar New Year was recently inscribed by UNESCO as the Intangible World Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

“We are delighted to invite the whole community to come along to watch and take part in a fantastic range of events which showcase all aspects of the arts within Chinese culture.”

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This story was made possible by you, our readers, and a host of organisations in the city, through our Crowdfund Lancashire appeal, which unlocked support from the Lancashire Culture and Sport Fund provided by Lancashire County Council. You can see all our coverage and, if you know of an arts project or event in the city we should be covering, you can submit it for our event listings and/or send details to contactus@blogpreston.co.uk for us to cover it as a story on the Blog.