From 8-21 February, QV Melbourne welcomes the Year of the Dragon with a bespoke installation, The Dragon’s Tale. Following last year’s delightful Dancing Bunnies, The Dragon’s Tale is a giant custom-built dragon’s tail that will dance in the wind, reaching over six metres tall.
An entirely free experience, The Dragon’s Tale is brightly coloured and lit from within, making for the perfect photo opportunity, day or night. The installation is open 10am-10pm daily for Lunar New Year (LNY) revellers to explore and experience, before or after their dining and entertainment celebrations.
Visitors can also scan a QR code to read the mythical Tale of the Dragon by award-winning storyteller Bon Wai Chou (Mei-Mei, speak more Chinese, SBS On Demand, short story Dying for Yum Cha, short memoir Die Hard, published by Hardie Grant).
“Lunar New Year is always a vibrant time of year across the QV laneways, with so many of our restaurants, venues and stores celebrating. We couldn’t be happier to be following the success of last year’s Dancing Bunnies installation with The Dragon’s Tale, honouring the auspicious Year of the Dragon,” says QV Centre General Manager Arabella Richards.
Visitors to The Dragon’s Tale at QV Square between 1-4pm daily will have the opportunity to receive a share in over $18,000 worth of lucky red packet giveaways.
Lion and dragon dances will take over QV Square during the opening weekend, with a lion dance at 5pm on Friday 9 February (LNY Eve), a Chinese dragon and lion dance at 5pm on Saturday 10 February (LNY Day), and another lion dance at 5pm on Sunday 11 February.
Melbourne Chinese dining institution Old Beijing will host a Lunar New Year banquet, featuring traditional LNY dishes such as the rainbow salad Prosperity Yee Sang, tossed at the table by the entire group of diners, chopsticks in hand. Other menu highlights include the very special Braised Supreme Abalone with Boletus Mushroom, the auspicious and lucky Lotus Leaf Rice, Braised Pork Knuckles representing unity and family, lucky King Island Lobster (‘Dragon Prawn’) and more. Old Beijing will also stage lion dances in the evenings of 9, 10 and 16 February.
“Lunar New Year is always a very special time in the calendar for us at Old Beijing, and we love to see how it brings families and loved ones together each year. We like to go the extra mile to honour all of the traditions, and we make sure that we support a charity every year,” says David Loh, co-owner of Old Beijing.
With Koreans and Taiwanese celebrating Lunar New Year, QV Melbourne is home to vibrant dining options to suit all styles and budgets from the theatrical Sura Korean BBQ to fast and easy options such as Taiwanese dessert bar Meet Fresh.
Booths Karaoke on Lt Lonsdale St provides multilingual karaoke booths at an affordable hourly rate, with over 300,000 songs to choose from in more than six languages. Fully licensed until 1am, it’s the perfect way to continue your Lunar New Year get-together.
Accessible through its network of laneways, QV exemplifies the quintessential Melbourne experience from food to fashion and so much more. Recent openings include iconic American workwear adaptations brand, Carhartt Work In Progress (Jul 2023), Los Angeles based fashion brand inspired by Scandinavian simplicity and American energy Anine Bing (Aug 2023), a new national flagship store for independent fashion curator Incu (Aug 2023), and legendary gelato brand, 7 Apples (Nov 2023).
