We chatted with T-Wei to learn more about his creative process and inspiration for the Wellington Lunar New Year Water Tiger artwork .

Asian Events Trust (AET) has announced the heralding of a new beginning with a rebrand of Wellington’s much-loved Chinese New Year Festival to the Lunar New Year Festival in 2022.

A weekend of activities to mark 20 years of Wellington’s Chinese New Year celebrations in the capital will go off with a bang on Saturday 13 February. The capital city’s night will light up with a fireworks display to farewell the Year of the Rat welcome in the Year of the Ox, supported by Stonewood Capital.

Organisers of Wellington’s Chinese New Year Festival have added an exciting new component to the 2021 festival. The Chinese New Year Zodiac Art Trail is an installation of specially commissioned artworks by locally and internationally based artists around Wellington’s CBD. We chatted with four of the exhibiting artists.

Supported by Asia New Zealand and Wellington City Council, the Chinese New Year Zodiac Art Trail will feature 12 artworks across discoverable sites in Wellington’s CBD and waterfront. Activations by local performing artists will also be developed at selected sites to further increase the exposure and the profile of contemporary Aotearoan and Asian art.

Asian Events Trust are thrilled to present the 20th annual Chinese New Year Festival in Wellington.

Taking place 13-14 February 2021, the festival will encompass a show featuring a festival retrospective, a spectacular fireworks display, a Zodiac art trail, and all the delicious tastes of Asian cuisine and displays of Asian culture.

On the edge of its 20th anniversary, the ladies behind Wellington’s Chinese New Year Festival reflect on its humble beginnings and its incredible journey to becoming one of the city’s most beloved cultural festivals.  

Wellington Chinese New Year organisers, Asian Events Trust (AET), have been selected as one of 10 semi-finalists in the 2020 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards. AET are up for the Mitre 10 Community of the Year award for its work in the organisation of the annual Chinese New Year Festival.

Wellington’s Asian Events Trust has been awarded ANZ’s Migrant Community Spirit Award for their support and development of migrant communities at the annual ANZ Lunar New Year event held in Auckland on Friday 15 February 2019.