Moon shines on festival

AS MANY people recover from one New Year celebration, Springvale’s Asian business community is preparing for the Lunar New Year Festival this weekend.
Organised by the Springvale Asian Business Association (SABA), the festival will be full of fireworks, lion and dragon dances, martial arts displays, various cultural dances, games and rides and much more.
SABA president Tom Huynh said an estimated 70,000 people were expected to flock to the festival.
He said the festival would attract people of Asian origin and also people from the wider community.
“The festival is welcome to all and is a celebration of the multicultural diversity that our city embraces,” he said.
“The festival is based on the lunar calendar and is celebrated on the first full moon of the lunar year and is generally followed by 15 days of celebration.”
SABA has been working in conjunction with the City of Greater Dandenong council to have sections of Buckingham and Balmoral Avenue closed to accommodate the festival and its patrons.
It has already been declared an alcohol free site, and the sections of road will be closed from 5pm until midnight on Saturday, 21 January.
The Springvale Asian Business Association was recently presented with a Service Delivery Award as part of the Victorian Multicultural Commission’s Awards for Excellence in Multicultural Affairs.