By SOPHIE BOUSTEAD
CLICK HERE for our picture gallery of the Lunar Festival.
SPRINGVALE was the place to be yesterday as thousands turned out to mark the start of this year’s Lunar New Year festival.
The central shopping district was transformed into a hive of activity in celebration of the local festival’s 22nd birthday, held a week before the Lunar New Year proper.
It heralds the start of the Year of the Snake, meant to signify a year of steady progress. It already looks that way for Springvale, with the design for the long-awaited Asian gateway to the suburb finally revealed yesterday.
The gateway, which will be constructed at the entrance to the shopping district at the Buckingham and Windsor avenues intersection, has been on hold since 2011 awaiting funding.
Springvale local Stan Chang, who has been involved with the festival for 15 years as spokesman for the Springvale Asian Businesses Association, was excited about the project. “It’s a very graceful design,” he said.
The association’s president Tom Huynh said he had expected up to 80,000 to attend the festival.
“It is one of the largest community events to celebrate the lunar calendar. It’s a very good family event for everyone in the region.”
While this year’s festival included traditional cultural events such as the lion dance and kung fu fighting, it also had some more modern cultural offerings like hip-hop and breakdance.
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