Taichung has aggressively developed to be「City of festival」and recognized by the international society; we’ve just won the recognition of 2018「World Festival & Event City Award」granted by the International Festivals & Events Association (abbreviated as IFEA) and we’ll leave for San Diego in the United States to receive the award in October. The officer of Cultural Affairs Bureau, the City Government, said, Taichung has continuously promoted the cultural equity and art in the villages during these years. Many splendid events have been conducted around the city to attract more international visitors to visit Taichung. We would like to express our appreciations to the international society to recognize the efforts we’ve made, and the City Government will continue to do our best to let the world see the beauty of Taichung.

「International Festivals & Events Association」(IFEA) was established in 1956 with more than 60 years of history. It’s a forum and platform to share and organize the festivals and events around the world. The headquarter of IFEA is located in Idaho state in US with many divisions across the world. This organization has started to conduct the「World Festival & Event City Award」in 2010 to promote all kinds of festivals and events internationally. The awarded cities will be able to attend the related international conferences and exhibitions. Meanwhile, IFEA will assist them the on international marketing related business.

There are 6 to 13 cities awarded with「World Festival & Event City Award」every year, some awarded cities are famous, including Philadelphia in US, Sydney in Australia, London in UK, Shanghai in China, Rotterdam in Netherlands, Ottawa in Canada, Hadong-gun in South Korea and Dubai in United Arab Emirates etc. New Taipei City has been awarded with「World Festival & Event City Award」as the first awarded city in Taiwan and Taichung is the second one.

Director of Cultural Affairs Bureau, Ji-Cheng Wang said, Taichung has conducted a lot of local and international festivals and events around the year, including Mazu international tourism and cultural festival, international flower carpet festival, Qiaosheng master cultural festival, jazz music festival, art season of the flower city, international dancing festival etc. they’re all very fabulous events with the comprehensive elements of people features and involvement with equity. The show stages of the events covered mountain, coast and run area around the city. We’ve dedicated to building the festival branding for Taichung and we’ve been seen by IFEA.

Director Wang explained, Taichung has many representative events all year round, including 「Taichung international flower carpet festival」which is an flower centered event with more than 1.72 million of people flow in 2017; Taichung Dajia Mazu pilgrimage is an important event recognized by Ministry of Culture, Executive Yuan, as「National important custom event」 with more than 2.5 million of followers every year. In addition, Taichung has planned「Taichung Mazu international tourism and cultural festival」to combine the features of temples and cultural creativities. It’s also the champion of「Group of festivals and events」of 2015 golden service industry surveyed by《Common Wealth Magazine》.

As along the changes among four seasons, the City Government has conducted Qiaosheng master cultural festival and Daan sand sculpture musical season festival in summer; Indigenous people cultural event and Jazz musical festival in Autumn; Art season of the flower city and international dancing festival etc., millions of people are attracted to attend these events every year to make Taichung up to be the City of festival.

Furthermore, all the events are focused on the localization to have the equal participations and the international connections, for example, the Xin Ding Ban festival in Donghsi has been conducted to carry the Hakka culture of Taiwan forward and concentrate the attentions of the group of people; Jazz musical festival has invited many excellent local or international teams and bands to perform with more than millions of audience to join in every year; Art season of the flower city has lasted for more than two months with more than 200 shows in the city; International dancing festival has successfully facilitated the communications between the Taiwanese and Japanese dancing groups in the academies. The upcoming 2018 Taichung World Flora Expo will combine the energies from the City Government and the private sectors to build Taichung as a garden city with splendid shows and exhibitions to make Taichung to become a shining point domestically and globally.