All dressed up and somewhere to go

Check out the annual carnival in Shijr tomorrow. PHOTOS COURTESY OF DREAM COMMUNITY

The Dream Community Culture and Education Development Foundation's annual carnival (夢想嘉年華) will begin tomorrow at 2pm with a colorful parade through the streets of Shijr (汐止) finishing with performances and a pageant by the Moonlight Action Theater at 7pm.

Organized by the community arts organization, partly funded by the Taipei city and county governments, and local businesses, this year's parade takes as its theme the cycle of life. There are five parts, with sections on birth and creation, the connection between the individual, society and the natural world, the dislocation of the individual from the external world, metamorphosis and finally rebirth.

Thirty-four international artists from 12 countries, almost double last year's number, were invited to hold a series of community-based workshops held throughout September and early this month to prepare for the carnival.

The parade, first held in 2002, adheres to an ethos that rejects commercialization. At the event, company signs or logos are forbidden and words are only allowed to appear on costumes if they are used poetically.

"It will be different from other parades in the sense that everything is very handmade. Really it's a celebration about members of the community finding the artist within themselves," said the artistic director for this year's festival, Andrew Kim.

The parade and pageant is the culmination of five weeks of work for the artists who organized activities with 11 local schools and workshops for local communities in the Shijr area.

The organizers are optimistic that tomorrow's festivities will attract as many as 3,000 to 4,000 participants. The route has been shortened and altered so the terrain is less difficult than last year's event and the road will be closed to traffic.

"On the one hand the response has been fabulous. But it took a little bit of getting used to, as the reaction in Taiwan is different than in the communities I work with in the States. It took a while for members of the community to feel comfortable making art with us. Sometimes they felt a little intimidated," Kim said.

For more information call, (02) 2695 6969, or visit www.dreamcommunity.org.tw