Celebrate Lunar New Year at QV Melbourne This Month

From 20-26 January, QV Melbourne welcomes the Year of the Rabbit with an interactive installation of eight 4.5 metre tall Dancing Bunnies in QV Square, energetic lion dancers meandering from the square to Old Beijing on Artemis Lane, as well as a host of dining and entertainment experiences.

Complete with imaginative sounds and night lights, QV invites Melburnians and visitors to experience and dance alongside the giant red bunnies as they celebrate Lunar New Year. An entirely free experience, the bunnies offer the perfect Lunar New Year photo opportunity, and will be open from 10am-10pm daily for LNY revellers to explore and experience, before or after the dining and entertainment celebrations. The first 50 visitors to spend $20 and visit the Dancing Bunnies each day will receive a lucky red envelope, sharing in $7000 worth of prizing (terms and conditions apply, visit qv.com.au for more information).

"With so many of our restaurants, venues and stores celebrating Lunar New Year and the playful Dancing Bunnies installation that has been dreamt up, we can't wait to welcome visitors to experience the Year of the Rabbit in the heart of the city at QV Melbourne," says QV Melbourne City Retail Centre Manager Arabella Richards.

Lion dances will be performed by the pre-eminent Chinese Masonic Society, Melbourne's most experienced lion dance team, sponsored by Melbourne's latest Chinese dining institution Old Beijing, which opened in QV Melbourne's Artemis Lane in 2021. The lion dancers will impress and delight on three occasions: 7pm on 21 January (Lunar NYE), 7pm on 22 January (LNY Day), and 7pm on 26 January. Giving away red envelopes along the way, the lion will end its dance by eating an auspicious lettuce hung in the main entry of Old Beijing.

Old Beijing has a Lunar New Year banquet menu to end all banquets, featuring traditional LNY dishes such as the colourful shared salad Prosperity Yee Sang, which is tossed at the table by the entire group, chopsticks in hand. Other menu highlights include their world famous Peking Duck, the auspicious and lucky 8 Treasure Lotus Leaf Rice, Braised Pork Knuckles representing unity and family, Red Bean Rice Balls symbolising togetherness, lucky King Island Lobster ('Dragon Prawn') and more.

"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 it's important to us that we support charities every year. This year we are proud to be supporting Very Special Kids through the Australian Chinese Events Committee Fundraiser," says David Loh, co-owner of Old Beijing, a multi space Chinese restaurant and bar with four specialty chefs offering the best Beijing, Guang Zhou, Shanghai and Szechuan cuisine.

With Koreans, Taiwanese and Thai 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 acclaimed Bangkok street food market style eatery Thai Town, alongside fast and easy options such as Taiwanese dessert bar Meet Fresh and Korean street food vendor Chunky Town. Maybe opt to eat your way through them all?

The newly opened 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 the city's home for luxury designer menswear MARAIS Men (Nov '22), Via Artists' Melbourne store featuring limited edition t-shirts and innovative garments (Oct '22), cute and unique stationery and accessories shop Mint My Desk (Sept '22), and Booths Karaoke (Oct '22).

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