The outdoor festival season isn’t over yet. Tomorrow and Sunday, a group of Taichung expatriates is holding Basic Aid ’09 Music and Arts Festival, a charity event at a mountain campground in central Taiwan featuring live music, DJs and paragliding.
Basic Aid was started three years ago as a “picnic-in-the-park” fund-raiser for Jess Morwood and Dan Ship, two former Taichung residents who moved to Varanasi, India, to start Basic Human Needs, an NGO that provides food, shelter and medical care to poor people.
The proceeds from the event go once again to Basic Human Needs, as well as a yet-to-be-chosen Aboriginal community and a fund for victims of natural disasters in Taiwan.
The festival has a simple purpose — to have fun for a good cause, says organizer Paul Davis, aka Boston Paul. “Taiwan gives us the opportunity to do things [as English teachers] ... why not give a little back?”
More than 15 bands, including Davis’ reggae/hip-hop outfit Militant Hippi, punk group Dive Bomb and country-western band WaySoon, are scheduled to play throughout the weekend at a scenic spot on Hutou Mountain (虎頭山) in Puli Township, near the geographic center of Taiwan. The music runs tomorrow from 2pm to 2am and 1pm to 7pm on Sunday.
The festival campsite is fully equipped with toilets and showers, and food vendors will be selling everything from burgers and curry dishes to beer and coffee. Plenty of vegetarian options will also be available, organizers say.
During the day, revelers can also partake in a tandem paragliding flight with Yuri Bradley Human, a South African expat who lives in the area and runs Step Out in Taiwan Adventures, a company that takes tourists on extreme sports trips.
WHAT: Basic Aid ’09 Music and Arts Festival
WHEN: Tomorrow morning through Sunday evening. Campsite opens tonight
WHERE: Hutou Mountain (虎頭山), Puli Township
GETTING THERE: For driving directions, go to the festival’s Facebook page (Basic Aid 2009 Music/Art Fest) or
search “Step Out In Taiwan Adventures and Basic Aid” on Google Maps. Festivalgoers can also take taxis from Puli bus station to Hutou Mountain or “The Stele of Taiwan’s Geographical Center” (地理中心碑); the fare should cost between NT$250 to NT$300
ADMISSION: NT$500 or NT$300 for students, includes camping fee
ON THE NET: www.basichumanneeds.net
Other activities include a video film competition, a “best dressed hippie” contest and a volleyball tournament. There will also be a fund-raising raffle with prizes including a free tandem paragliding flight and T-shirts.
Davis and his cohorts are looking to expand Basic Aid’s scope beyond this annual event. After Typhoon Morakot, they started an emergency fund for natural disaster victims in Taiwan.
Davis hopes a charitable spirit will carry through at the festival this weekend. “I want people to go away feeling that they were part of something bigger than themselves, that they were part of a community,” he said.
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