Lunarfest Crafts and Lanterns

Lunarfest Vancouver is an annual festival that takes place around Lunar New Year. It includes family-friendly activities, art displays and entertainment.

The festival is an inclusive event that celebrates Chinese New Year, Korean New Year, Vietnamese New Year and the Lunar New Year for other cultures too. It’s hosted by the same organization that runs TaiwanFest in September.

In 2024, Lunar New Year was on February 10th. Lunarfest ran from February 9th to 29th.

To learn about this year’s festival, continue reading below or see our article about LunarFest Vancouver.

For the festival’s official website, visit lunarfestvancouver.ca.

Lunarfest Vancouver

Lunarfest consists of a number of events, displays and activities outside the Vancouver Art Gallery, at Granville Island and at the Orpheum Theatre. The festival is related to The Lantern City which features art displays at four locations including Jack Poole Plaza. In 2024, another related series of events was LNY Splash which also featured a few outdoor art displays as well as films at the VIFF Centre.

In 2024 LunarFest started on Friday, February 9th, which was New Year’s Eve for the Year of the Dragon. The festival then ran until Thursday, February 29th. In addition to LunarFest, there were The Lantern City art exhibits during that same period.

The main LunarFest celebrations took place on three weekends at Granville Island as well as on the Lunar New Year weekend of February 10th and 11th at šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl’e7énk Square (which is the plaza on the north side of the Vancouver Art Gallery). Activities included craft workshops. With them, all but one with bamboo had free admission.

The other main LunarFest event in 2024 was the LunarFest Concert on February 13th at the Orpheum Theatre.

For the festival’s official website, visit lunarfestvancouver.ca.