City gears up for Chinese New Year celebrations

Crowds are expected in Manchester city centre for Chinese New Year celebrations that will include dancers, drummers and a bamboo dragon.

Organisers said the event to celebrate the Year of the Snake would be a "stunning" display of Chinese culture, with performers taking to the streets around Manchester's Chinatown.

The mixture of food, music and cultural events will culminate in the traditional dragon parade on Sunday.

Lisa Yam, one of the organisers, said the bamboo dragon used for the procession had been in use for 34 years.

Ms Yam, who is also the President of Federation of Chinese Associations of Manchester told BBC Radio Manchester the centrepiece parade takes professional performers "months and months" to prepare for.

Each year the dragon structure is reassembled piece by piece from more than 70 different parts, she said.

From 12:00 GMT on Sunday, it will parade along Oxford Street, before moving along Portland Street, turning through into Chinatown on Faulkner Street.

"The reason why we do the parade is to bless the whole town when we walk through all the shops and people in the city centre," Ms Yam said.

Authentic street food will also be on offer from local vendors throughout the weekend.

"Each dish has some meaning, for example for the new year we all have fish as it symbolises abundance and prosperity - chicken for luck," Ms Yam said.

There will also be a funfair, stalls and lots of other live performances through the weekend.

These includes displays by the Guizhou Acrobatic Troupe, DJ sets, and an illuminated dragon parading through the city streets later in the evening.

Several roads around Faulkner Street will shut throughout the weekend, leading to some buses to be diverted.

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