Victoria Street Lunar New year festival

This festival was free for all to go to. Set right in the heart of Victoria st in Richmond this is a must see every year. Every Chinese/Lunar new year a lot of people go to the festival to see the dragon and taste the food. Each year there are many Australians as well as Asians who attend this festival.

I must admit that taking the tram there can be difficult as they closed off the line and you have to walk to McKay st which is nine minutes away. There are replacement buses which don't stop in Victoria st so most people took the train. I took the number 78 tram from South Yarra to Richmond and at the end took the tram back.

Cherries

Foods on display

The stage

The makings for Longan drink

Samosa samples

The games really were a waste of space. They are not what people come to these cultural festivals for. The balloon one was very nauseating for some people.

We love coming to these cultural festivals just to try new foods. The new foods we tried were the longan drink which symbolises good health and wealth for the coming year. To me the seaweed and grass in that drink was quite foreign to me.

There was this other Bun (Vietnamese salad) which had chicken and you had to mix the coconut sauce in with the fish and vinegar sauce. To me that was just weird and it drowned out the flavour of the salad. But still noodles bring longevitiy for the new year.

The watermelon drink was quite a refresher for me on this warm day.

Also I loved the lion dancing and that was so much fun for all to watch. On a day like today many people got dehydrated and someone had to be taken to hospital.

Many thanks for the festival Victoria st. Can I make a suggestion for next years one and that is to remind people to stay hydrated on a really hot day? People should bring two bottles full of water if they can and one big tank is not enough for a festival this size. Drinks here are quite expensive.