Lancaster Chinese New Year Festival Cultural Variety Show - Lancaster Grand Theatre

Lancaster Lunar New Year Festival 2027

Returning for its sixth year, Lancaster Lunar New Year Festival presents a vibrant, family-friendly cultural variety show featuring professional artists and performers from Lancaster and across the UK.

This year’s programme will feature three distinctive headline performances. Pagoda Arts’ Chinese Youth Orchestra will take to the stage with live traditional Chinese instrumental music, showcasing the talent of a new generation of young musicians.

Audiences will also experience a dedicated Beijing opera performance, bringing together powerful singing, stylised movement, dramatic storytelling and elaborate traditional costumes. Live accompaniment developed with musicians from Pagoda Arts will bring added depth and energy to this historic theatrical art form.

Presented as a separate performance, Sichuan opera face-changing, known as bian lian, will provide one of the afternoon’s most spectacular moments, as vividly coloured masks appear to change in the blink of an eye.

The programme will also feature elegant Chinese classical and folk dance alongside traditional instrumental music.

Tian Qiyi will bring another musical dimension to the programme, combining traditional Chinese instruments with Western and experimental influences to create a distinctive contemporary sound rooted in Chinese musical heritage.

Whether you already know and love Chinese culture or are discovering these art forms for the first time, this colourful celebration promises a memorable experience for audiences of all ages.