Valleywide celebrations to mark Year of the Monkey

Looking for somewhere to celebrate the Year of the Monkey? You don't have to book a trip to Asia — Las Vegas is full of plenty of offerings, from Chinatown to The Linq.

Chinese New Year Celebration & Asian Food Festival

Las Vegas' Chinatown Plaza, 4255 Spring Mountain Road, is home to one of the largest Chinese New Year celebrations. The plaza's property manager Joe Shen said via email that the annual celebration attracts more than 6,000 visitors, brings in about 15 vendors and taps the talents of 13 groups of performers.

"It has become a key event in Las Vegas every year. Residents start inquiring about the event date several months prior," Shen said.

He added that it takes months to plan.

"We usually start planning in September," he said. "There is a lot of work involved, such as coordinating with food and merchandise vendors, performers' program details and scheduling, mapping out the event zone and working with stage and hardware equipment contractors. As this event grows every year, more detail and attention are required."

Festival entertainment is set to include a dragon parade, Japanese, Polynesian, Vietnamese and Korean dancers, Chinese martial artists and acrobats, and a dragon dance.

Shen said visitors can expect new additions this year.

"There will be more food vendors, which consist of not only Chinese cuisine but also Japanese, Korean, Malaysian and Hawaiian," he said. "There will be new performers from last year as well. But the most popular, the lion dancers, will still be performing. You cannot miss it. This event is for everyone. Everyone will have a great time."

Festivities are slated from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 21. Visit lvchinatownplaza.com.

Chinese New Year in the Desert

Chinese New Year in the Desert plans to launch its fifth season Feb. 4-14.

Organizer Jan-Ie Low said the celebration welcomes everyone.

"So you have Mardi Gras; you have St. Patrick's, but Chinese New Year is a big deal for us," she said. "It also attracts a lot of international visitors from China, Korea and Japan."

Low said event highlights are slated to include presentations by 40 performers brought in from the Hunan Province, a money tree, a large parade downtown followed by an after-party at the Downtown Container Park and a mass wedding on Valentine's Day.

She added that visiting performers are only the beginning — the events are also set to feature local performers such as the Lohan School of Shaolin lion dancers and local taiko drummers.

"We want this to be a citywide event," Low said. "Our goal is, we want to bring culture for free for our public. So everything you're going to see is free. It's not like you have to be a highroller to be able to see the concerts and the performers. It brings all the locals, the nationals and the internationals, coming together to celebrate the lunar New Year."

Low helped found the event in 2012. Her family owns Satay Thai Bistro & Bar, 3900 Paradise Road.

"And we are literally five minutes away from the LVCVA (Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority), the convention center," she said.

Chatting with staff in the convention authority's international department, Low had expressed a desire to launch a celebration.

"We'd been talking, you know, Vegas really kind of lacks culture. Or at least it doesn't have enough," she said. "We're kind of missing something."

"Rafael (Villanueva, senior director of international sales for the LVCVA) came to me and said, 'Are you kidding about doing this, or do you really want to do something?' And I said, 'Let's do it.' And we started down at the Fremont Street Experience," Low said.

From there, the event was moved to The Linq, a venue that Low said is perfect.

"Even though it's Caesars' property, it still creates that feeling of community," she said.

Schedule highlights are:

Activities at The Linq Promenade, 3535 Las Vegas Blvd. South, are set to include: Lion blessings at 7 p.m. Feb. 8-14 and 2:30 p.m. Feb. 14; cultural performances from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Feb. 8 and 1 to 7 p.m. Feb. 14; performances by the Hunan Dance Troupe at 8 p.m. Feb. 9-12 and 14; a ribbon cutting at 7 p.m. Feb. 9; ice shavings and fruit carvings at 7:20 p.m. Feb. 10; noodle pulling and pig carving at 7:20 p.m. Feb. 12; dance-4-A-Cause at 7:20 p.m. Feb. 13; and a mass wedding at 3 p.m. Feb. 14.

Activities at The Boulevard Mall, 3680 S. Maryland Parkway, are set to include: Lion blessing at 5 p.m. and cultural performances from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Feb. 10.

The Spring Festival Parade is scheduled from 11 a.m. to noon Feb. 13, running down Fremont Street from 11th Street to Seventh Street.

A Parade After-Party with cultural performances and free kids' activities are scheduled from noon to 6 p.m. Feb. 13 at Downtown Container Park, 707 Fremont St.

Visit cnyinthedesert.com.

Celebrate on the Strip

Year of the Monkey displays are up at in the Conservatory at the Bellagio, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd. South; The Venetian, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd. South; the Forum Shops at Caesars, 3500 Las Vegas Blvd. South; and the Aria, 3730 Las Vegas Blvd. South.

The dance and martial arts troupe Yau Kung Moon is slated to perform Chinese dragon and lion dances at 3 p.m Feb. 8 in the main porte cochere at the Aria; at 3 p.m. Feb. 9 in the main lobby of the MGM Grand, 3799 Las Vegas Blvd. South; and at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 10 in the main porte cochere of the Bellagio.

A lion dance is scheduled at 3 p.m. Feb. 8 — starting with an eye ceremony in the porte cochere at The Venetian — and is set to wind its way through the lobby and casino before stopping in the Palazzo waterfall atrium and then ending at the Palazzo porte cochere with firecrackers.

The Meadows School plans a parade featuring 60 kindergartners and 60 fifth-graders at the Forum Shops at Caesars at 10 a.m. Feb. 8 near the illuminated dragon. The 20th annual parade will travel throughout the shopping center, stopping in front of the Fountain of the Gods for a performance.

— Contact View contributing reporter Ginger Meurer at gmeurer@viewnews.com. Find her on Twitter: @gingermmm