Cultural Affairs Bureau, Taichung City Government, will hold「2018 Taichung Children’s Arts Festival」 with「Kaleidoscope of Plays」as the theme from 1st April to 9th June. 34 great shows and activities will be rolled out all over the mountain regions, seaside districts and urban area. National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra (NTSO) will be invited for the first time to play the chamber music classic concert this year. And many popular local children’s theatre troupes like Open theatre etc. will bring their shows to make the festival filled with plenty of plays just like kaleidoscope and all these shows are provided for free or with free tickets by request.

Taichung Children’s Arts Festival is greeting its 11th years. It’s an arts festival of Children’s Day for children. The City Government is implementing the plan of everyone with the equal right to access culture and arts penetration into the rural villages recently. All the related events are scaled up and expanded to everywhere of the city. This year, we will link to Taichung World Flora Exposition and base on the theme of「Kaleidoscope of Plays」to present the kaleidoscope like diversity to the children. Let the children see many different scenes through the plays on the stage.

Today(23rd), Cultural Affairs Bureau was kicking off the festival with Atayal Taiwan First Nation M-yu Dancers, Stone theatre, Sheng Wu Joug Glove puppetry theatre, StageNet theatre, Mad theatre, Little frog theatre and Open theatre etc. attending to play their popular performances. Deputy Mayor Yi-ing Lin, Director of Cultural Affairs Bureau, Chi-chen Wang, City Councilor, Hsu-jou Liu, assistant troupe leader of NTSO, Li-ru Lin, troupe leader of Open theatre, Chung-lun Liu and troupe leader of Atayal Taiwan First Nation M-yu Dancers, Ya-ling Huang etc. were all there to join in the important ceremony.

Deputy Mayor Lin said, the children of Taichung City are happy and lucky because they can enjoy the policy of「One stop creche and babysitting」proposed by Mayor Chia-lung Lin. These children will be subsidized for their daily requirements for living and provided with valuable resources to support them during the period of their growth by government. Taichung City has conducted the Children’s Arts Festival for 11 years. This upcoming festival is the biggest one compared with the past ten and will last for two months and rolled out around the whole city. And NTSO is invited for the first time to perform for the children to give the kids a happy Children’s Day of arts.

The officers of Cultural Affairs Bureau said, this Children’s Arts Festival will have not only children’s theatre troupes but also collaborate with NTSO to conduct「2018 NTSO seeding everywhere in the community－chamber music classic concert」. There will be 13 different types of concerts, including brass quintet, wind quintet or string quartet etc. with live explanations for the performed musics on site to make children immersed in the classical music.

The children’s plays of this year will be performed by the local theatre troupes in Taichung City, including Open theater, Little frog theatre, Stone theatre, StageNet theatre, Mad theatre, Sheng Wu Joug Glove puppetry theatre and Atayal Taiwan First Nation M-yu Dancers etc. with 7 shows in total. The venues of「Theater Kaleidoscope」are in the cultural centers of the Port area, Hulu Dun, and Tun districts.「Community Kaleidoscope」 will leverage the spaces in the communities, including the elementary schools, community activity centers and district offices To perform. The same 7 troupes playing for「Theater Kaleidoscope 」will have 14 shows in communities.

Open theatre will bring the shows like《The secret of Long good tea 8－Mommy task force of the universe》, 《Fragrant fart for sale》and《Wow～Monster！》, Little frog theatre will bring the 《Three piglets》and《Legend of the bears》; Stone theatre will combine the topic of ocean environmental protection to perform《Little white dolphin-Lala is not alone》; StageNet theatre will bring us《The fantasy world of granny》to explore the elderly care in addition to the interactions between parents and children. Mad theatre will incorporate the high technological and drama into the dance named《Change seats game：Big wind blows》and《12 symbolic animals gathering celebration》; Sheng Wu Joug Glove puppetry theatre will mix the glove puppetry with the art leader of the parade as《Mazu legend -Q version》and《Magic journey to the west》; Atayal Taiwan First Nation M-yu Dancers will join in the event for the first time this year to perform the story of the aboriginal people,《Moon, Sun and the Warrior》.

The officers of Cultural Affairs Bureau explained, all the performances played during Children’s Arts Festival are free offered to give the children a happy Children’s Day. 「Chamber music classic concert」is free admission; 「Community Kaleidoscope」is free admission open 30 minuets before the shows begin; 「Theater Kaleidoscope」is providing 50% of free tickets by request on Information desks of the venues of performances from 9 a.m. on Saturday before the performances by first come first serve (up to 2 each person) until finished. All the other tickets are open free by request 1 hour before the shows begin and the audience with tickets should enter 30 minuets before the show begins. The tickets will be invalid if the audience would not admit 10 minuets before the show. Please go to Children’s Arts Festival website, http://www.tcaf.com.tw/index.php or search「Taichung Children’s Arts Festival」on Facebook for more details about 2018 Taichung Children’s Arts Festival.