Some indoor performances by local groups to look out for: Ifkids' Three Cat Cookies, based on a picture book of the same name about dealing with loss as a child; Shiny Shoes Children's Theater's Let's Go to the Big Island, about Penghu and environmental protection; and 123 Theater Group's When the Fairy Meets the Devil, which will give kids a taste of traditional Chinese theater.
The festival's approximately 30 performances will be supplemented by various activities designed to get kids interested in art and inspire their creativity. The "art train" is a series of activities at different museums around Taipei designed to keep kids and their parents busy all day. It was created as a solution to the festival's problem of decentralization.
"We don't have a large area in Taipei where we can hold all our activities, but we want people to be able to spend a whole day of fun," said Fang. "Since the performance venues couldn't be moved, we started thinking of fun things to do nearby."
For example, if a family is planning to attending a performance at Tianmu Sports Park in the evening, during the day they can enjoy specially planned activities and exhibitions at Taipei Fine Arts Museum, the National Taiwan Science Education Center and the Hong-Ga Museum. Participants will get discounted entry with the "kid's passport," a fat book listing all festival activities that was handed out at elementary schools and can be picked up at CKS Memorial Hall and Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT
stations.
Other fun events include the Parent-Child Dress-Up Festival (Aug. 8) where kids can dress up with their parents and parade around the Xinyi Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, and the Taipei Graffiti Fairy Tales, which will give kids a chance to create art on the walls of museums around town.
Festival notes:
What: 2005 Taipei Children's Art Festival
When: July 16 to Aug. 13
Where: Outdoor performances Da-an
Forest Park, Tianmu Sports Park and
City Hall Square.
Foreign group performances:
Thumbelina -- CPC building of Kuo-kuang Hall (中油國光廳);
The Little Mermaid -- Taipei National University of the Arts swimming pool
(保一總隊游泳池);
Sweet Story in a Big Book -- Social Educational Hall, Wenshan Branch
(社教館文山分館)
Tickets: NT$150 to NT$200 through ERA
ticketing www.ticket.com.tw,
or (02) 2365 6287).
Outdoor performances are free.
Details: For performance and activity
times and venues visit kids.culture.gov.tw,
call (02) 2736 5982 or pick up a schedule
at CKS Memorial Hall or Zhongxiao
Fuxing MRT station
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