Chinese lions have paraded along the streets of Sydney to launch a festival marking the beginning of the Lunar New Year.
The city has held the festivities since 1996 and it now hosts one of the biggest Lunar New Year celebrations outside Asia.
Appearing in Chinatown on Feb. 8 alongside a lion-dance troupe, Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the festival was one of the city’s most important events.
Festivities will include art installations, lion-dance parades, dragon boat races and traditional performances across 16 days.
Australia is home to about 1.4 million people with Chinese ancestry, the largest population for any non-European cultural group.
Several other Sydney areas will also hold Lunar New Year festivals, while large events will also take place elsewhere in Australia.
In Melbourne, thousands of people are expected to attend the Victoria Street Lunar Festival in inner-city Richmond.
Lunar New Year celebrations in the City of Sydney run from Saturday until Feb. 26.