By Stephanie Chao, the Eye on Taiwan staff writer
The annual Taipei Lantern Festival will officially kick off this coming Saturday, Feb 24 at Ximending Performance Area outside the Taipei Metro’s Ximen station with a lighting ceremony which the city government has promised would be a vibrant feast to the eye.
With the slogan “Transforming Western Taipei, Transforming Lantern Fest,” the festival will present creative contemporary performances of the rich and diverse cultural traditions in Taiwan during the opening ceremony at 6:00-7:30 pm, according to the Taipei City Government, the main sponsor of the event which will run through March 4.
Combining classical and pop music, circus tricks and stunts, dazzling stage effects and powerful beats, the opening performance “Puppy Shines upon the City” will be a fusion of traditional folk music, contemporary A Cappella and dancing to warm up the audience, organizer of the event said in the Taipei Lantern Festival official website.
Pop music band G9 Ft. Drumline will give another musical performance that “will turn the streets into the National Concert Hall,” the organizer said.
“Formosa Circus Art will perform the circus act “Dream,” showing amazing stunts such as acrobatics, handstands, crystal ball, stilts, diabolo juggling, Parkour, and more,” it said.
The main lantern “the Magical Dogs” — in line with this year’s Chinese Zodiac sign (dog) — consists of three dogs in a circle, echoing the festival’s theme of happy together in 2018, according to the organizer.
There will also be a special zone for visitors to guess riddles — a major theme of the festival, in addition to other performance areas. A closing ceremony will be held at 7:00-8:30 pm March 4.
The organizer said during the opening and closing ceremonies, there will be traffic controls around Zhonghua Road between Ximen and Beimen metro stations as the entire sidewalk of this section of Zhonghua Road will be used for the displays of lanterns and other activities.
The Taipei Metro will also impose passenger flow controls during the opening and closing ceremonies at Ximen station as the number of festival-goers is expected to surge in this periods.
Throughout the event (Feb 24, Feb 25, Feb 28, March 3 and March 4), bicycles will not be allowed to enter the area starting at 15 p.m. on the aforementioned dates. Ximen Station will only be allowed for bicycle transfers to other parts of the metro line, according to Taipei Metro.
Also, as the main lantern display area is located outside Exit 6 of the Ximen Station, Exits 1 and 6 will be designated as “entry-only” entrances, while Exits 2, 3, 4 and 5 will be used for “exit-only,” it said.
It called on tourists heading to the festival to take note of metro trains and broadcasts. While Taipei Metro will increase train fleets to accommodate the crowd flow, the company still asks tourists to consider walking from Taipei Main Station or Beimen Station during peak time.
For details of the traffic controls, please click on the website link below.
https://2018.lanternfestival.taipei/en/TrafficAdvisory.php
Cauldron: The Reviving Glory
“Young Power, Blazing Radiance, Infinite Motivation, Everlasting Energy.”
The theme of the 2017 Summer Universiade “For You‧For Youth” ignited the flame of passion in all Taiwanese! Athletes from Taiwan broke recordsachieved excellent results with their perseverance and efforts, inspiring everyone in Taiwan!
The cauldron is 7 meters high and 6.2 meters wide, with metal fan blades that implyrepresent fire; during the Universiade, the fan blades moved up and down to symbolize, symbolizing the balance between body and mind and also representrepresenting the endless striving spirit of Taiwan is stable between movements.for progress. The 17,000 individual parts of the cauldron are contributionswere contributed by the bicycle industry and automation machiningautomated processing machinery manufacturers, whichand are all “MIT (Made in Taiwan)”.
The 2018 Taipei Lantern Festival will revive the glory of the Universiade sacred flame at Beimen, combining. Combining bamboo art crafts and the opening ceremony music of the Universiade, lightingthe sacred flame will be lit up the sacred flame in a digital lighting show and, emitting youthful vitality sending out blessings from Taipei.
Exhibition duration: Feb. 24th to Mar. 16, 2018
Lighting Show: 18:30, 19:30, 20:30 and 21:30 daily during the exhibition.
Lantern Riddle Zone
Date: Feb. 24th, 2018 to March 4th, 2018
Time: 19:00-21:00 Daily
Location: Student Creativity Area
Lantern Riddles have always been one of the most popular and challenging activities at every Lantern Festival. This year, the riddle games will be a collaboration between Lantern Festival and City God Temple of Taipei City, with hundreds of lantern riddles waiting to be solved!
* Taipei Lantern Festival reserves the right to make adjustments to the performance schedule.
Date: Feb. 24th, 2018 to March 4th, 2018
Time: 18:00-22:00 on weekdays, 13:00-17:30 and 18:00-22:00 on weekends
Location: 2018 Taipei Lantern Festival Performance Area
10 groups of street artists will be invited to perform in the lantern exhibition areas along Zhonghua Rd. and main lantern exhibition areas. Visitors will discover public art installations alongside street performances as part of the surprises at each street corner in Ximending!
Street Parade
Date: March 3rd, 2018
Time: 17:30 – 19:30
Location: Fuxing Elementary School
The 2018 Taipei Lantern Festival Street Parade has a theme of “Go Impress”, which is a wordplay on “gou”, the Chinese word for dog. Over 60 groups from all walks of life will form a giant parade of thousands, joined by their pet dogs in the Year of the Dog Street Parade, sharing their energy and passion to fellow citizens.
* Taipei Lantern Festival reserves the right to make adjustments to the performance schedule.
2018 GOGO Happily!
Date: March 3rd, 2018
Time: 19:30-21:00
Location: Beimen Performance Area
On the night of the Lantern Festival, people are welcome to join the street parade together and form a giant dog-shaped circle to make unforgettable memories. Let’s GOGO Happily!
* Taipei Lantern Festival reserves the right to make adjustments to the performance schedule.
Date: March 4th, 2018
Time: 19:00-20:30
Location: Ximen Performance Area
On the last day of the 2018 Taipei Lantern Festival, let us all be thankful for the staff’s hard work and the visitors’ active participation, and let us wishes each other a happy new year to come.
At the closing ceremony, Huashan Station will present a carnival of “Puppy Shines upon the City”; Cultural Arts Performing Taipei (CAPT) has a diabolo and jump rope integrated artistic performance prepared, followed by Girls Nine (G9) featuring Drumline and their beautiful fusion of the classical and modern music. To top it off, there will also be a special ending edition of the lighting show at the closing ceremony to light up happiness within each of us!
