2010 Taichung International Flower Carpet Festival

Words and photos by Taichung City Government
Translated by Naomi Lai

Have you ever heard of a flower carpet, or perhaps seen the large flower carpet in Brussels, Belgium? This year you won't need to leave Taiwan to enjoy such a spectacle. Instead, just head to Citizens' Square (aka People's Park) where you'll have the chance to experience a colorful, magnificent carpet of flowers during the 2010 Taichung International Flower Carpet Festival

As the festival name indicates, the central theme revolves around laying flowers out into a large carpet. This year's festival, hosted by the Taichung City Government's Department of Information between Aug. 21 and 29, will include a three-dimensional flower carpet and take place along the JingGuo Boulevard parkway and Citizens' Square. For total of nine days, the event will display a 100-meter-long, 60-meter-wide flower carpet made from tens of thousands of flowers and other plants, a sight that promises to bring some color and joy to festival visitors' lives.

The main visual designer of the flower carpet is Wu Yung-Chien, original designer for Expo 2010 Shanghai China mascot "Haibao". Wu notes: "It is not only architectural beauty that matters in how developed a city is. It is also important how happy its citizens are." With this in mind, he has created a design that expresses the imagery of happiness spreading out in ripples of flowers and a 15-meter-long raised platform portraying a smiling water droplet. Serving as an art consultant is Academy Awards Art Direction Winner Timmy Yip. This joint collaboration between these two artistic giants will certainly be something worth experiencing.

Opening and closing ceremonies will start at 7 p.m. on August 21 and 29 at People's Square. The opening ceremony will include performances by internationally-renowned environmental musician Matthew Lien, and the closing ceremony will feature performances by 2010 Golden Melody Awards Best Newcomer winner Lala Xu. Also included in both the opening and closing ceremonies will be fireworks shows. Various musical performances are scheduled for the duration of the festival with daily themed performances, plus special weekend performances. There will also be five themed sections, including "Light Sculptured Flower Carpet", "Musical Water Dance", "Flowers From The Sky", "Magical Kaleidoscope" and "Observatory Of The Castle Of Happiness".

To ensure the appropriate use of the flowers after the event's close, the host organizations plan on distributing the flowers around Taichung City, making the city even more beautiful. For more information, please visit www.tcflowercarpet.com.tw or call (04) 2237-1234, ext 4750.