Dancing lions and dragons set for Chinese New Year

Organiser Amy Zhang, with her husband Tie Chen

A celebration to mark the Chinese New Year is to be held for the first time in a Warwickshire town with a growing Asian population.

The event is to be held in Rugby town centre on Sunday to mark the start of the lunar calendar in the year of the snake.

The day will involve a number of events including a procession of dancing lions, dragons, lanterns and drums.

Organiser Amy Zhang said the event will be held for the first time as the number of Chinese families in the areas, attracted by local schools, is growing.

The event will take place in Market Place between 11:00 and 16:00 GMT, said Mrs Zhang, who is also chair of the Warwickshire Chinese society.

"Over the last three or fours years there's been lots of young families moving to Rugby," Mrs Zhang continued.

"We've had a lot of people from Hong Kong as well. The main reason is the school - it's growing all the time.

"The Chinese New Year celebrations are a very important annual celebration for the Chinese Community and I am really pleased that we have the opportunity to celebrate it with the wider community in the town centre."

Linda Lowne, Rugby's first business director, said the Chinese community continues to grow.

"We are looking forward to welcoming visitors from Coventry, Warwick and Leamington, many of whom are university students, to the town centre which can only be good news for the local economy," she said.