When Tigger meets Taichung at the 2010 Central Taiwan Lantern Festival

Here Comes Tigger!

Words and photos by Taichung City Government
Translated by Naomi Lai

Taichung City Mayor Hu knows that "cultural activities are the best marketing tools for any city" and, therefore, has year after year aimed to create a series of surprises during the annual Central Taiwan Lantern Festival. Each year, the city government has poured its creative juices into featuring well-known characters to serve as festival themes, including Snoopy in 2006, Piglet in 2007, Mickey and Minnie Mouse in 2008 and baseball team Sinon Bulls' mascot in 2009. This year, in celebration of the Year of the Tiger, the city is inviting world-famous Disney character Tigger to join the party and take the crowd on a journey into Disney's world of fantasy.

A different Tigger every day
The 2010 Central Taiwan Lantern Festival will be lit up around midnight on Feb. 21 and last for 15 days until March 7 at the Wenxin Forest Park. This year's main lantern will be a 15-meter-tall Tigger, together with two large LED screens displaying a different main lantern show each day with light shows, theme music and Tigger-related films.

A special guest will officially launch the festival by lighting the lanterns on Feb. 22, followed by main lantern movie shows, fireworks shows and musical performances by Kimbo, Alien Huang, FUNS band, Claire Guo (Guo Ching), Ren (Hsia Yu-tung) and 2MORO band. These exciting back-to-back events will certainly be an audio-visual extravaganza for audience members.

Let's crash the Lantern Festival Party!
Each day of the 15-day Lantern Festival a different main lantern movie show and performance will be held. On March 2, Ming Hwa Yuan Arts & Cultural Group will light up the stage; on March 3, a special performance in collaboration with a popular local Formosa TV show will bring famous hosts such as Hu Gua and Tung Chih-cheng to celebrate the festival and play interesting games with the audience; and, on March 6, a mystery guest from Hong Kong will be give a special performance that promises to be spectacular. For the closing ceremony, the city government has invited famous Taiwanese singers Jung Jung, Michelle Pan, Tseng Shu-ching and various Formosa TV stars. Clearly, every night will promise to be a big night at the Central Taiwan Lantern Festival.

Adventures in a Sea of Lanterns
During the festival, the forest park will be separated into 10 lantern sections with "Tigger" and his world as the theme. These lanterns are designed using famous cartoon clips from Winnie the Pooh as inspirations, including episodes such as "Game: Da Feng Chuei (Simon Says)", "Concert", and "Celebrating Christmas" from their experiences in the Hundred Acre Wood. There will also be detective Tigger's adventures in "Making New Friends", "Treasure Hunting", "Getting Lost in the Foggy Forest", and "What will you encounter in the forest?", not to mention children's favorites, "Chasing away the evil witch!", "Birthday Party" and "Meeting with well-beings". Interactive activities have also been included in the design of this year's theme lantern sections, turning them into not only great photography opportunities, but also fun and surprising worlds of their own, and transforming the Wenxin Forest Park into Disney's magical Hundred Acre Wood.

Also included in the festival are Creative Lantern and Artistic Lantern areas, a Sea of Lanterns tunnel, a street artist performance area, family activities area and gourmet food area. This year's Artistic Lantern zone will include charity sales of famous artists' lantern creations, based on images of Taichung, with all profits donated to charity groups. Paired with the "Traditional Art Festival", Taichung City Government's Lantern Festival celebrations invite all residents, young and old, to come out and join the fun.

Taichung Transportation Convenience
If you're worried about transportation, Taichung is very convenient. The Wenxin Forest Park is located at the crossroads of WenXin and XiangShang roads, close to main thoroughfares like Taichung Port Road, WuQuan West Road's Section 2 and HuanZhong Road. You can also take the bus and stop at: Da-shin Elementary School with Cyuan Hang Bus No. 5 or UBus No. 85; the crossroads of XiangShang and DaDun roads with Taichung Bus No. 60; the crossroads of HuiWen and XiangShang roads with Cyuan Hang Bus No. 5; or the crossroads of XiangXin and WenXin roads with UBus No. 73. These bus stops are all near the Fulfillment Amphitheater.

For out-of-town visitors, the city government has arranged free hourly shuttle buses from 2 to 10 p.m. between the Taichung Train Station and the Fulfillment Amphitheater. For more information, please visit the official Central Taiwan Lantern Festival website at www.tclantern.com.tw.