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FESTIVAL: Picnic power

FESTIVAL NOTES: WHAT: White Label City Life Art Festival WHERE: Huashan 1914 Creative Park (華山創意園區), 1, Bade Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市八德路一段1號). Huashan 1914 is the new name for the venue formerly known as Huashan Creative Park (華山創意園區) WHEN: Tomorrow from 3pm to 10:30pm and Sunday from 3pm to 8pm ON THE NET: whitelabelfesta.blogspot.com; www.huashan1914.com.

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White Label is gonna fight ... for your right ... to picnic.

With City Life Art Festival tomorrow and Sunday at Huashan 1914 Creative Park (華山創意園區) (formerly known as Huashan Culture Park, 華山文化園區), the group is putting a new spin on the CAMPO-style outdoor market/music festival. Drawing inspiration from the Tokyo Picnic Club (www.picnicclub.org), White Label is urging Taipei residents to reclaim their urban spaces through the power of the picnic. Admission is free and attendees are encouraged to bring their own food and drinks.

“It will be an urban picnic event from now on,” said White Label founder Chen Yu-hsin (陳昱興), better known as A-Li. “We would like people to not just come to see the bands and to buy things at the market. They should ask their friends to come picnic with them.”

White Label began in 2008 when A-Li, cofounder of CAMPO (Cinema Art Music People Original), decided to branch out. Like CAMPO, the new venture was to be a monthly gathering of artists and musicians sharing and selling their work in an environment free from commercial influences. But although he loved the grass-roots, independent feel of the CAMPO experience, he wanted White Label to be more urban and edgy.

White Label hosted six events in the first half of 2008, but organizers grew frustrated with the city government’s noise, decor and flyer restrictions for the use of Red House Theater (西門紅樓) in Ximending. For A-Li, there were just “too many rules.” As a result, the White Label went on hiatus for more than a year.

“I’m an office man now,” A-Li said. “I can’t hold as many events as CAMPO used to, but I still want to do something.”

Bands and DJs are performing all weekend at City Life Art Festival, but tomorrow is the big day and will include the fuzzy shoegazer sounds of Boyz and Girl and the video game-inspired electronica of Unfamiliar Friends Party (不熟的朋友派對). Also tomorrow, the First Film Festival (firstfilm.pixnet.net), which is showing the debut films of 30 Taiwanese directors in 10 days at different locations across Taipei, will screen its first film, Sunday Morning (星期天早晨), by director and curator Alfie Chen (陳建軒). An outdoor installation art exhibit and a flea market selling products made by independent artists and designers are planned for both days.

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