The annual Hot Springs Chinese New Year Festival takes place Friday

HOT SPRINGS – The bold colors of red and gold embellish the streets. People dance to the drums and a fierce dragon brings in the Year of the Horse.

The annual Hot Springs Chinese New Year Festival is set to take place Friday, Jan. 31. The festivities are set to begin at 3:30 P.M. on Main Street.

The Chinese New Year became an annual tradition around five years ago. Locals Laurie Gibson, Lenny Gibson, Lisa Pearl and Kurt Cruse were the ones who originally came up with the idea to construct a dragon for Chinese New Year.

“A few years ago I designed the dragon and we had around 30 people working on it,” Kruse said.

Constructing the 30 foot dragon was no easy task but the people of Hot Springs pulled together and made it happen.

“[The dragon] is made out of cardboard, paper mache and paint. It took a lot of people doing paper mache and painting to put it together,” Kruse said. “We had a big painting party at the senior center because it was too big to fit anywhere else.”

They will be using the same dragon as they have in previous years but modifications were made this year.

“This year we made [the dragon] easier to carry. We did not realize how heavy paper mache can be when we first constructed it,” Kruse said.

The large and vibrant dragon is something many Sanders County citizens look forward to seeing each year.

According to Leslee Smith, owner of the Symes Hot Springs Hotel, it takes 19 volunteers to carry the dragon.

The Hot Springs students were so excited for the Chinese New Year festival that they constructed their own dragon to march alongside the larger one. Unfortunately, the smaller dragon suffered damage and will not be in this year’s festival.

The large dragon parade will begin between 3:00 and 3:30 P.M. and will be accompanied by drum players.

Smith is hopeful that horses will also accompany the dragon to go along with the Year of the Horse theme.

After the dragon parade, Chinese food will be available at the Symes Hotel during their regular dinner hours of 5:00-10:00 P.M. The menu will consist of egg rolls, pot stickers, Asian stir fry and Chinese pork noodle soup. The usual fare will also be available.

Asian cuisine will also be available at the Spring Street Tribal Nutrition Center.

Starting at around 7:00 P.M. the fire dancers will start performing in front of the Symes Hotel alongside the traditional bonfire.

These same fire dancers, led by Errol Clark, performed at the Hot Springs Winter Solstice Festival and won the crowd over with their choreography and music selection.

Additional entertainment will be provided inside the Symes Hotel beginning at 8:00 P.M. courtesy of musician David Ricci.

Chinese New Year and the festivities will end with a bang. Fireworks will be set off as soon as the other entertainment concludes.