With most of 2018 over, many people are planning for 2019.
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Bendigo’s event calendar is already packed with performances, parades, tournaments and festivals.
Here is five of the most exciting things you should be planning to see in 2019.
Ten Bendigo Chinese dragons to parade at Easter
New Chinese imperial dragon Dai Gum Loong will be unveiled to Bendigo at Easter and will parade with all of the city’s processional dragons.
Ten dragons will parade in total including Sun Loong and original dragon Loong who made his first appearance in 1901.
Sun Loong, Dai Gum Loong, Yar Loong, Gansu Loong, Ming Loong, Ping Loong, Siu Lock Loong, Choi Loong and Gwong Long will also parade at the festival.
Sun Loong will parade for the final time in 2019 and is currently being restored.
Women will also be permitted to help carry new dragon Dai Gum Loong – traditionally a male-only role – with at least 320 carriers, including reserves, required to help parade all 10 dragons.
Centuries-old royal portraits to exhibit at Bendigo Art Gallery
Works on loan from London’s National Portrait Gallery – including some that have never travelled outside the UK – will be shown in Bendigo for the Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portrait exhibition.
Opening in March, it features more than 150 British monarch portraits.
“This exhibition presents an opportunity for our audience to experience works by significant artists,” former Bendigo Art Gallery director Karen Quinaln said at the announcement in August.
National Portrait Gallery director Nicholas Cullinan said he was delighted to see the exhibition tour internationally.
“This unprecedented exhibition provides visitors to the Bendigo Art Gallery with the opportunity to encounter some of history’s most fascinating personalities as well as many of the most accomplished portraits produced in the last five hundred years.”
New music festival to debut in Bendigo’s CBD
The View Street arts precinct will host more than 200 performances over four days when the Bendgio Autumn Music Festival debuts in April.
The new music festival will be held from April 25 to April 28 and feature up to 80 artists, bands and performers.
BAM director Glenn Wright hopes the event will be a boutique, family-friendly music lovers’ festival.
The first announcement of performers was made in September with the main line-up announced in November.
Super Netball arrives in Bendigo
Collingwood Magpies and reigning premiers West Coast Fever will meet in Bendigo for during round five of the Suncorp Super Netball Season.
Bendigo Stadium will host the match at its world-class facilities on Saturday, May 25.
“Netball is a big sport in Australia but regionally in Victoria it’s massive and this will be a good opportunity to see netball stars on the court at the Bendigo stadium,” Bendigo Stadium general manager of sport Ben Harvey said.
“We’re very proud to be hosting the match and hopefully there are many more to come.”
Local theatre company’s Wicked plans
One of the most popular musicals in modern times will take to the Ulumbarra theatre stage in the second half of the year.
Bendigo Theatre Company will present Wicked from October 25 to November 3 with 10 performances scheduled.
BTC president Abe Watson said while the production was ambitious and a financial risk, he believed the company could pull it off.
Wicked premiered in San Francisco in 2003 before heading to New York where it won three Tony Awards and is the sixth-longest running Broadway show.
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