MORECAMBE will be going all cosmoplitan next weekend for the resort's first ever Chinese New Year Festival.

A seven hours celebration of international music and culture is being planned at Morecambe Youth and Community Centre, Woodhill Lane, next Sunday (February 6) with all proceeds going to the DEC's Tsunami Earthquake Disaster Appeal.

To be opened by Lancaster Mayor Cllr John Day and launched by the Buddhist Light International Association of Manchester's youth Lion Dance, it will feature music and dancing performed by many people in many styles and cultures.

Performers will include the Manchester Chinese Operatics Society performing Chinese opera, Lancaster's own Ludus Dance Studio with its Indian Dance and Belly Dance groups, local female duo Alkemy singing modern pop songs, students from Lancaster University performing traditional Chinese and a Classical String quartet performing western classical music.

Added to these will be an International Caf' serving food from around the world Chinese, English, Indian, Sudanese, Pakistani and more!

There will also be a lantern making workshop with Jen Worth from White Cross Adult College, face painting from Lancaster and Morecambe College and relaxation with the Temple of Light Healers, who conduct relaxation through the use of a non-contact spiritual relaxation exercise.

A variety of gift stalls will complete the picture along with a sponsored balloon race and raffle with prizes donated by many local businesses.

Late on in the day, a one-minute silence will be held to pay respects to people who have lost their lives to the sea both in the recent South East Asian Tsunami and also in the Morecambe Bay cockling tragedy exactly one year ago. The sponsored balloons will be released at the end of the silence as a symbolic gesture.