2006 Taipei Children's Arts Festival
The long-awaited summer event, the Taipei Children's Arts Festival will begin on July 15. This year, the Puppet Theater "Pinokio" from Serbia and Montenegro in collaboration with Taiwan's own Ju Percussion Group 2 will be the opening act. Life-size puppets with human-like movements will be accompanied by a live drumming performance. There is little doubt that the 2006 Children's Art Festival will make a big splash and a spectacular event for everyone in Taipei! In its seventh year, the theme for this year's Children's Arts Festival is "The World Is by Your Side." By land, sea, and air, an array of fascinating performances and art forms is coming to Taipei. That means that without traveling all over the world, kids can see all sorts of cultures and styles from many different countries and from Taiwan too. Step into the "World Theater Terminal," and climb on board the romantic "Theater Star" line, where well-known local children's theater groups will perform under the open sky at night. At the Songshan Tobacco Factory and at Daan Forest Park, storytellers will tell Hakka stories, Taiwanese adventures, Western fairly tales, and traditional Chinese legends. Take a wondrous ride on the "Local Drama Railway" and travel to India, to the aboriginal world, and back to a typical day in a classroom. Be ready to see the best plays of 2005 act out such as "Six Locks" by If Kids Theater, "Fairy Milk Spring" by 123 Troupe, and "Who Is the Winner" by High Sun Taiwanese Opera. When you ride the "International Drama Railway," be ready for a lot of surprises! Tall Stories Theatre Company of the U.K. introduces you to a little mouse that makes up wild tales and gets frightened by a big monster. Meanwhile, Teatro de las Maravillas from Spain brings you the touching story of a cat that teaches a seagull to fly. And MOKI Children's Theater from Austria guides you to the land of the tiny Lilliputians and the giants of Brobdingnag in "Gulliver." All these plays are sure to take the children on an unbelievable ride of their wildest imagination. After enjoying the many different theatrical performances, ride the "Art Express" to all types of galleries and museums. With a "Kid's Passport," there are many benefits to choose from. They include discount admissions to the special exhibition "Toys from Spain" at the National Museum of History, the Taipei Water Festival at Taipei Water Park, and "Round the World with Paper" at Suho Memorial Paper Museum. This year more museums than ever are joining the Festival – twenty-six in Taipei City, and seven in Taipei County: Yingee Ceramics Museum, Taipei County Hakka Museum, Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology, Gold Ecological Park, the Lin Family Gardens in Banqiao, Juming Museum, and the Museum of World Religions. Your "Kid's Passport" is the gateway to a great adventure in all of these fabulous places. Afraid you won't have enough time to enjoy all the fun? Don't worry! On July 29, most of the museums taking part in the "Art Express" will extend their business hours until 9 pm. On that day, Taipei will be a huge wonderland for children's arts, where kids can go crazy and have fun all evening! For additional information, please visit http://kids.culture.gov.tw/ec/en_index.htm