The Taichung Children’s Arts Festival begins on April 1st in 2017! The festival invited the Paperwindmill theater, Open Theater Group, Little Frog Theatre, Stone Theatre, StageNet Theatre, Mad Theatre, Sheng-Wu -Chou Puppet Troupe and other quality Taichung performing groups in a free show tour. Twenty-five performances will begin from April 1st to May 13th covering the mountain, coast, central and city districts. Deputy mayor Lin Yi-ying invites parents to bring children along for enjoyment together, enrich leisure life and let the kids spend a children’s day full of creativity.

The city's Cultural Affairs Bureau hosted the Children’s Arts Festival opening press conference on the 15th. The event kicked off with spectacular performances by the Paperwindmill Theatre, Stone Theatre, Sheng-Wu-Chou Puppet Troupe, StageNet Theatre, Mad Theatre, Little Frog Theatre and Open Theatre. Deputy Mayor Lin Yi-ying and the Cultural Affairs Bureau were present to join the event.

Mayor Lin indicated that as the annual Children’s Arts Festival draws near, the Cultural Affairs Bureau rolled out a splendid “Children’s Arts Festival” events. Six nationally renowned troupes of Taichung, Paperwindmill, Stone, Open, Little Frog and others were invited for a series of spectacular performances beginning from April 1st to May 13th touring the mountain, coast, central and city districts . A total of 25 performance tours will be offered for free, in hopes of parents bringing children along for the ride.

"We hope that leisure shouldn't be just about playing with phones and watching televisions!" said Deputy Mayor Lin. One can attend the wonderful exhibition and performance activities in Taichung after school or work, allowing culture and arts to become a part of livelihood, life enrichment and offering kids an environment of creativity and humanities early on for aesthetics development and learning through entertainment.

The Cultural Bureau's Wang pointed out that the Children’s Arts Festival this year will be greater in spectacle than previous years. Besides the six native troupes of Taichung, the Paperwindmill Theatre also participated in the show. The city government insisted on the concept of “Equal rights on culture and integrating the arts into rural life” by Mayor Lin Chia-lung. Allowing the Children’s Arts Festival to take place not only in the city, mountain, coastal and central districts but also have performance areas in district offices and libraries. A total of 25 fantastic performances will be held. Families are invited to come hand in hand to attend the Children’s Arts Festival series of events.

The Cultural Affairs Bureau stated that the Taichung Children’s Arts Festival held for over 10 years has become an important annual parent-child event. The city government began to expand event areas citywide to mountainside, coastal, tun and city center districts in 2015. Last year, the original one-week event was extended to a full month and attracted the participation of estimated 45.9 thousand people.

The 2017 Taichung City Children’s Arts Festival commence on April 1st to May 13th, with 25 scheduled performances. Event venues included Seaport, Tun and Huludun Cultural Center performance halls; Central, Dajia, Dongshi, Longjing, Daya, Waipu, and Heping community areas. Forms of performance merge theater, dance, puppetry, hand-puppets, art education, interactive theater experience, etc. The shows will not only be brilliant and fun but also rich in educational significance.

The Cultural Affairs Bureau also said in coinciding with the Year of the Rooster, the Paperwindmill Theatre will be performing the lively musical “Chicken side Story", an adaptation of "Romeo & Juliet" and "The Westside Story". Watch how the members of two great chicken families put down their differences and resolve the crisis of chicken head crisis hand in hand. The whole play proceeds from the point of affection, friendship and love, in hopes of teaching children the pursuit of honor and courage when faced with frustration and pressure.

In addition, the renowned Taichung performing group Open Theatre released “The Secret of Long Tea 1-Legend of Sun Moon Lake”, “Mulan”, “Flowers”, “Bull Demon King and Princess Iron-Fan”; the Little Frog Theatre will be bringing classics such as “Hansel and Gretel”, “Legend of the Bear”, “New Little Red Riding Hood”; Stone Theatre will be performing “Black Cat Legend”, StageNet Theatre will be launching the brand new creation “Spark”; Mad Theatre will be combining visual device, technology, dance and drama for their “Transposition: Game with the wind”; Sheng-Wu-Chou Troupe will be combining puppetry and art din tao (parade formation) for an innovative interpretation of “Crazy Journey to the West: Taichung Rhapsody”, “Adventure of the Whizz Kid”.

Participation of The Children’s Arts Festival is free; please refer to official site for related event information. http://www.tcaf.com.tw/index.php