Festival a celebration of Asian cultures

A NEW twist on the Harvest Moon Festival is in the works this year, with the event to take place on the Friday before the AFL Grand Final public holiday.

While the Bendigo Chinese Association has historically celebrated festival with a sit-down performance, this year the group has decided to bring in food trucks and roving performers.

Member of the association’s event planning committee Zoe Willis said the group had trialled the new event structure at last year’s festival.

“It’s always good to do something a little bit different give us a chance to have a little bit of creativity with our performances,” she said.

“We bring out Gwong Loong our dragon as well as the phoenix, which is something to see.”

Gwong Loong is the Bendigo Chinese Association’s dragon and Ms Willis said members took pride in performing with him.

“Being able to bring him out and perform with him and carry him it’s such a community feeling when you’re all carrying him together,” she said.

Harvest moon is celebrated in many Asian countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam, India, Thailand and China, and performances on the night will tell stories from these places.

“Our lion team will be performing a couple of different sets that tell a little bit of story about harvest moon as well as a couple of roaming performances where everyone will be able to get up close and personal with our lions,” said Ms Willis.

The festival food trucks will come from across Victoria and include Yum Yum May Dumpligns, K-food Korean restaurant, and Bendigo’s own Not Just Pizza.

Drinks will be available from The Bendigo Chinese Association van, and the Golden Dragon Museum restaurant will also be open.

Ms Willis said Harvest Moon is a chance for people to come together with loved ones for prosperity and wellbeing.

“We really want people to come together, have a nice family night out, try some different food that they wouldn’t usually try, and support the Bendigo community in general,” she said.

The Harvest Moon Festival is free to enter and will take place at Dai Gum San from 4pm to 7pm on the Friday before the AFL Grand Final public holiday, 29 September.