
Colourful photo ops abound
With so many Lunar New Year festivities on in Sydney and its suburbs, the choice is hard as you can only get to so many. This colourful time brings much entertainment, from sights to sounds, along with culinary delights. If it's quality food and fun you're after, then The Star is the place to go.
This entertainment hub is marking the occasion of the Year of the Rat with dining specials and festive shows. Various restaurants will be offering celebratory dishes and menus that include wok-tossed somen noodles with seafood ($26.80) from Fat Noodle, whole steamed grouper in the Food Quarter ($38), a Prosperity Toss seafood salad at Chuuka ($68), black lip abalone with kombu butter ($68) from Black Bar & Grill and a seafood feast at Harvest Buffet ($79). For high rollers, there's Opulence at Sokyo ($628) - a Sashimi platter of lobster, caviar, toro, uni and scampi.

Opulence at Sokyo
For festive shows, be sure to catch the special Lunar edition of Aqualume in the Grand Foyer. It's The Star's free digital art and aerialist show where you can watch performers twirl against a backdrop of giant red lanterns, cascading water and moving ink paintings that depict the blossoms of spring. You can see it every Thursday-Sunday night at 7pm, 8pm and 10pm, from 24 January.

Aqualume, as it looked back in October. It will be even prettier for Lunar New Year
Traditional lion dances, combining martial arts and performing arts, will also take place on these nights at 7.15pm (with the exception of Australia Day). With them, comes the beat of drums as well as stilt walkers roaming around The Star.
Your camera will be in overdrive, but wait, there's more. Outside, a 3.5m tall walk-in lunar lantern at the complex's Harbourside entrance provides another photo opportunity. It's covered in red tiles, depicting the resourceful rat, with a shimmering gold interior. You can see it from 23 January.
Visit the
website for more on offer at The Star and usher in a year of prosperity in style with the first animal in the 12-year cycle of animals of the Chinese zodiac.