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Jam in Yangmingshan to inspire appreciation for the planet

If your less environmentally aware friends need a reason to go to tomorrow's Earth Day Mountain Jam in Yangmingshan, you might tell them about the drink specials. NT$50 tequila shots will surely have lots of people feeling green.

A better reason to go would be for the music. It's not every weekend that Taichung's Boogie Chillin comes north to take the stage. Add Taipei's roots-music outfit David Chen and Muddy Basin Ramblers, the Anglers out of Chungli, and Neon and you have one of the better live-act lineups Taipei has seen so far this year. And they're outdoors overlooking the city, no less.

But the best reason would be for the day itself. The whole point of Earth Day is to raise awareness of its namesake. Crunching a few aluminum cans at an outdoor party may be an unusual means of marking the day, but with any luck it'll end with a few mea culpa conversations and some destructive habits changed for the better.

Janice Steiner, the organizer of tomorrow's Mountain Jam, believes this kind of word of mouth momentum is exactly the thing Taiwan needs to kick-start a local consciousness about the environment and create a grassroots movement.

"Everywhere you go you see litter," she said. "People need to be confronted and told, `Hey, you shouldn't do that.' Instead people say nothing."

Today is Earth Day, and while there have been few to no official government activities marking the day, Steiner sees no harm in observing it a day late. Every day is Earth Day, after all.

To get to the Earth Day Mountain Jam by public transportation (it is Earth Day, after all) catch the S19 at Shilin MRT station. The bus will go on Zhishan Road (芝山路) then left up the mountain. Get off at the top after the HoHo Cafe.

Carpoolers can get there by driving past the National Palace Museum to section three of Zhishan Road, then take the first left after the amusement park, Pingjing Street (平菁街), to the top of the mountain. Organizers have hired trees to hold signs pointing the way.

Entry is NT$500 with beer and sangria is priced at NT$100. The fun starts at 3pm and goes till 11pm.
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