Lunar New Year: Celebration! at The Portico Library

Creative Tourist
A group of children in traditional Chinese dress
Manchester Chinese Centre

Lunar New Year: Celebration! at The Portico Library, Chinatown 10 February 2024 Entrance is free — Visit now

Built in 1806, the Portico Library is one of Manchester’s oldest buildings still fulfilling its original function, while also offering a year-round line-up of free exhibitions, performances, public readings, events, talks, workshops and activities. True to form, it has some fantastic events lined up for Chinese New Year, including an afternoon of music and drawing, presented with the Manchester Chinese Centre.

Welcoming in the Year of the Dragon, the collaborative organisations have programmed a host of live performances for the 10 February, featuring guzheng players (a guzheng is a Chinese plucked zither), violinists and singers. The live music element is free, and comes first at 2pm, before a Dragon Drawing workshop, which has now sold out.

Lunar New Year: Celebration! at The Portico Library, Chinatown 10 February 2024 Entrance is free Visit now

What's on at The Portico Library

Yellow poster with Weird as Folk written on it
Until
LiteratureManchester
Weird As Folk exhibition at The Portico

The Portico Library’s latest exhibition, Weird As Folk, runs through to November and invites you to explore and reimagine folklore via texts selected from the collection, which includes 100 books of English folklore.

free entry

Where to go near Lunar New Year: Celebration! at The Portico Library

City Centre
Restaurant
Blinker

Elegant cocktail bar in the centre of Manchester, with a relaxed atmosphere and wonderfully friendly staff.

moose coffee manchester creative tourist
Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
Moose Coffee Manchester

Moose Coffee celebrates ‘the best meal of the day’ (brunch) in American style, with stack pancakes, potato hash, Huevos Rancheros and eggs any way. There’s always a queue.

Manchester
Restaurant
Six By Nico Manchester

Six By Nico is the brainchild of renowned Scottish-Italian chef Nico Simeone. This Manchester arm of his acclaimed restaurant offers a completely new six course menu every six weeks.

Home-X
Manchester
Restaurant
Home-X

Home-X is the online spin-off of renowned Scottish-Italian chef Nico Simeone’s Six By Nico restaurant. This is geared around kit meals to cook at home.

Manchester
Restaurant
Pho Manchester

Pho does a fine line in pho, the noodle soup that’s a staple of Vietnamese street cuisine.

Manchester
Shop
Siam Smiles

Now based at the Great Northern, Siam Smiles is a food stop that’s hot on everyone’s lips.

Chinatown
Restaurant
Manchester Art Gallery Cafe

Summery bakes, seasonal salads and fresh light meals at Manchester Art Gallery’s in-house café, courtesy of highly-regarded Head Chef Matthew Taylor.

hunan chinese restaurant manchester
Chinatown
Restaurant
Hunan Restaurant

Hunan, a Chinese restaurant in Manchester’s Chinatown, may be a bit off the beaten track – but it’s all the better for that.

Salut Wines
Chinatown
Bar or Pub
Salut Wines

Salut wines pride themselves in offering “wider horizons beyond the safe choices.” With 42 wines by the glass and a regularly changing selection of bottles in their Enomatic wine preservation machines (or  “wine jukebox,” as they’re colloquially known), this is one of be best bars in Manchester for exploring new vintages.

City Centre
Restaurant
Jamie’s Italian Manchester

Jamie’s Italian is located in Edwin Lutyens’ soaringly elegant Midland Bank, one of the city’s treasures. The menu’s full of crowd-pleasing choices, with a huge selection of pastas, mains and bruschettas, and an appealing kids menu.The drinks range is broad and deep, with wine, beer and cocktails for all tastes and budgets.

Culture Guides

Rebecca Watson author photo
Literature Events in Manchester and the North

In between working out, then working through, your holiday reading pile this summer, find inspiration for your next bookish acquisitions from our selection of live events and exhibitions.