The Taipei Dadaocheng Fireworks Festival is tomorrow at the Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕碼頭) and Yanping Riverside Park (延平河濱公園). Unlike recent predecessors, it is announcing no contingency for rain.
“We’ve been in contact with Central Weather Bureau because we were wary about the typhoon,” said commissioner Sun Tien-long (孫廷龍) of the Taipei City Government’s Department of Information and Tourism.
“The report is that it’s headed north and will be out of Taipei by noon tomorrow … The evening should be rain-free,” he said.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei City Government
Clear skies bode well for tomorrow’s festival, which culminates in the evening with a 27-minute fireworks show of new special effects and unprecedented technical difficulty.
It’s meant to mark both Chinese Valentine’s Day and the 130th anniversary of Taipei City, Sun said.
MUSICAL FIREWORKS
Photo courtesy of the Taipei City Government
Tomorrow’s show is seven programs of 33,000 individual fireworks, meticulously choreographed to live power pop.
In the opening program, brocade crowns will burst into glittering spiderwebs in sync with Europe’s The Final Countdown, performed live by the Taipei Symphony Orchestra (市立交響樂團).
Exploding aerial shells will illustrate the historic Ximen gate in the sky and separate bursts will fully inscribe the gate in a circle, said producer MuDanHong Fireworks (牡丹紅).
Star Wars presents synchronized pyrotechnics launched in a neat row along the Zhongxiao Bridge (忠孝橋), while Stravinsky’s Firebird (火鳥) will be pins and cascades descending in a slow burn over the Dadaocheng Wharf.
Feet of Flames (火焰植舞) is five minutes of fireworks set to a tap-dance tune, said Roger Lo (羅思治), general manager of MuDanHong Fireworks.
“In this one we’ll have fireworks skimming over the water surface,” Lo said.
“We treat the fireworks like dancers. When the music is in the middle of a tap dance, the fireworks are, too.”
PRE-SHOW
Starting at 3pm tomorrow, the waterfront will play host to assorted pre-fireworks entertainment.
Gates Three and Five of the Dadaocheng Wharf are bazaars of food and accessories.
Onstage at Gate Four, it’s the Songshan Lion Dance Troupe and Yoyo Family (YOYO家族), a children’s song-and-dance outfit that hails from YoYo TV.
The pre-show also includes Civilian Skunk, a four-piece rock band and winner of the Okinawa Teens Live 2010 competition, and a traditional dance troupe that specializes in Eisa, a Japanese folk dance for youth.
The best view of the fireworks is along Daodaocheng Wharf, particularly at Gates Four and Five, Sun said.
A fleet of ferries is ready to take viewers out on the river. Seven boats embark in the evening on a slow three-hour trip with no stops, as a way to watch the fireworks away from the crowd.
As of press time, ferries are fully booked with standby tickets available, said Shun Feng (順風航業) operator Chang Yong-hsin (張永心).
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) announced today (Aug. 1) that the festival would be canceled out of consideration for the disaster in Greater Kaohsiung.
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