An ancient Chinese celebration centred on gathering and communion, the Moon Festival has been widely embraced by Canberrans since the festival’s first local iteration in 2016.
Project Director Suzana Li told Canberra Daily this year’s festivities will span over three days, from Friday 21 September through to Sunday 23 September at Exhibition Park in Canberra.
“On Friday we’ll have a crazy costume party night with three contests – cultural costume, manga style, or creative and fun style … then there’ll be karaoke,” she said.
Saturday’s schedule will consist of a wide array of cultural performances including dragon dance, Peking opera and much more.
Sunday’s centerpiece is a talent show to be judged by rising star Lucy Sugerman, Canberra music stalwart Andrew Ricard, and Air Music Australia’s founder Woody Wang.
They’re also setting out to grab a slice of history by attempting to set the Australian record for the largest moon cake, with the current record of 70.5kg, 73cm wide and 13cm deep set at the Cabramatta Moon Festival in 2015.
While not divulging how big their moon cake will be, Ms Li said it would certainly be bigger, and will be shared around on the Sunday afternoon.
“In the future we’ll be trying to get a new Guinness record each year to get everyone involved,” she said.
Ms Li said the event has grown significantly since its first run in 2016, and that the intention behind it is to be inclusive.
“For us it’s about the concept of one community, one world and one big family.
“We’ve also had a lot of non-Asian people attending, and that’s really the purpose of our festival,” she said.
This year’s three-day event will be held at EPIC, a move designed to allow more room for the event to continue growing into the future.
“Canberra Theatre Centre (the 2017 venue) were great, however with our growth in future years means it would be hard for us to continue catering to that area in Civic.
“EPIC is an enclosed, safe area that’s also gives us the opportunity to grow our event into the future.”
The Canberra Moon Festival will be held at EPIC this weekend, 21-23 September; canberramooonfestival.com.au
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