At a glance
- When and where
- Sunday 31 January 2027, 12pm to 10pm (AEDT), Hampshire Road, Sunshine, in the town centre shopping precinct
- Cost
- Free
- Road closure
- Hampshire Road between Devonshire Road and Hertford Road, closed to traffic for the festival
- Lion and Dragon dance
- 6:30pm at the stage, with a display of long-string firecrackers; the organiser says there will be no fireworks this year
- Who it’s for
- Families and friends in Sunshine and the west; the organiser describes a day of free family fun
- What to do now
- Festival date and hours are set by the organiser; the line-up and stalls are not yet published
- Last checked
- Sunday 8 November 2026, against the Sunshine Business Association’s festival and Visit Sunshine pages and the Brimbank Events listing
- Not yet confirmed
- The line-up of bands and dance groups, the list of street food stalls, shuttle or public transport changes on the day, and the final road closure times
The Sunshine Lunar New Year Festival, also called the Tét Festival, is on Sunday 31 January 2027, from 12pm to 10pm, along Hampshire Road in the Sunshine town centre. It is free, and the organiser, the Sunshine Business Association, says Hampshire Road between Devonshire and Hertford Roads will be closed to traffic. Melbourne is on daylight saving time in January (AEDT), so all times are local times.
This brief is built from the organiser’s festival page, its Visit Sunshine page and the Brimbank Events listing, checked on Sunday 8 November 2026. Some detail is not yet announced, and this guide says where.
What is on, and when?
| Detail | What the organiser says |
|---|---|
| Date and time | Sunday 31 January 2027, 12pm to 10pm |
| Place | Hampshire Road, Sunshine, between Devonshire and Hertford Roads |
| Cost | Free |
| Main stage | A large performance stage with seating, with musical acts, live multicultural bands and dance groups |
| Host | Diana Nguyen, giving away red pockets from the stage and running the Fastest Pho and Fastest Rice Paper Roll eating challenges, with $500 prizes |
| Civic Green | Street food stalls, children’s rides (small and large), face painting, street performers, lawn games and a Cultural Kid’s Zone of kids’ craft |
| 6:30pm | Lion and Dragon dance with special effects, and a display of long-string firecrackers at the stage |
| Fireworks | None this year |
Who runs it, and who pays?
The festival is staged and presented by the Sunshine Business Association. The organiser lists the Victorian Government and Brimbank City Council among its supporters, along with a number of local businesses and groups, including the Australian Vietnamese Women’s Association and the Vietnamese Museum Australia. The festival page says Sunshine’s local sporting groups will also attend and present kids’ activities.
The organiser’s page also carries a stallholder application. It invites corporate, food and goods stallholders to apply through a Google form in September and October, and community groups and stage acts to contact the committee. The stall list has not been published.
Which roads are closed?
The organiser says Hampshire Road between Devonshire Road and Hertford Road will be closed to traffic and “come alive with multicultural entertainment”. It does not give closure start and end times, or say which side streets are affected. The Civic Green community area in front of the restaurants is where the food stalls, rides and kids’ zone will be.
How do I get there?
The festival page itself gives no transport advice. The organiser’s separate Visit Sunshine page, which is general and not specific to the festival, says Sunshine CBD is 12 km from Melbourne and that public transport is the best way to get there. It says Sunshine is a regional railway hub for trains to and from Ballarat, Melton and Geelong, with a 20-minute ride from Melbourne on a Sunbury or Watergardens train. For a taxi or rideshare, the page gives the address 301 Hampshire Road, Sunshine.
The same page says 18 bus routes terminate or travel via Sunshine, and four of them (220, 408, 903 and 942) travel along Hampshire Road, stopping at the Sunshine Marketplace and Sunshine Plaza front doors. Whether those buses are diverted while the road is closed is not stated.
Where do I park?
These are the organiser’s general Visit Sunshine notes, not festival-specific advice:
| Where | What the page says |
|---|---|
| Hampshire Road and side streets | Most parking is free, with 1 to 2 hour limits |
| Around the Marketplace on Harvester Road, and under the Plaza (entry via Service Street or Hertford Road) | The best parking, with 3 hour limits |
| Clarke Street and Dawson Street | Free, 1 to 2 hours |
| George Street multi-deck car park | All day for $4, payable by card only, and it closes at 10pm |
| Both sides of the train station | All-day parking areas |
The festival runs until 10pm and the George Street car park closes at 10pm, according to those notes. The pages do not say whether any of these entrances stay open during the closure, and give no space counts. The page also lists Durham Road parking, but the council’s Durham Road car park page says the car park closed on 13 March 2025 for construction and that most of the site would stay closed until mid-2026, so that line is not repeated here.
What else does the Sunshine Business Association run?
The same organiser runs a weekly street market along Hampshire Road, every Friday from 8am to 3pm, subject to weather, on the footpath outside the library between Service Street and Bennett Place. For other Brimbank events this season, see the Brimbank Christmas guide and the Clarke Street Beats and Eats guide.
What is still unconfirmed?
- The line-up of bands and dance groups, and stage times other than the 6:30pm Lion and Dragon dance.
- The list of street food stalls and the number of rides.
- The exact start and end of the Hampshire Road closure, and any bus diversions.
- Parking and public transport arrangements specific to the festival.
- Wet-weather plans.
Sources
- Sunshine Business Association: Sunshine Lunar New Year Festival 2027 (checked 8 November 2026)
- Sunshine Business Association: Visit Sunshine (checked 8 November 2026)
- Sunshine Business Association: Sunshine Street Market (checked 8 November 2026)
- Brimbank Events: Sunshine Lunar New Year Festival (checked 8 November 2026)
- Brimbank City Council: Durham Road car park works (checked 7 November 2026)
Featured image: a Lunar New Year celebration in Melbourne in 2014, shown for illustration; it is not from the Sunshine festival (photo: Chris Phutully from Australia / CC BY 2.0) (text added)
OZ Local Updates is an independent local guide and is not affiliated with the Sunshine Business Association or Brimbank City Council. Event details can change; check the organiser’s page before you go.