The annual Dream Parade will fill the streets between the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial and Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei tomorrow afternoon with a bit of Brazilian carnival, Mardi Gras and Burning Man zaniness.
The first parade was organized by Gordon Tsai (蔡聰明), the founder of the Dream Community (夢想社區) in what is now New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止), in 2002, though the Taipei City Government began co-sponsoring the event several years ago.
Each year the parade is centered around a different theme that seeks to embody the unique mix that is the heart of Tsai’s dream for his community: community building, creativity and pageantry.
Photo courtesy of the dream community
The theme this year is “Crazy Village,” and teams of float builders, artistisans, musicians and performers from Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, France, India and Brazil were invited.
This is in addition to the scores of teams organized by residents of the Dream Community — whose housing contracts require them to take part in one major art festival or parade annually — high schools and universities around Taipei, social groups and drumming teams from schools in Aboriginal communities nationwide.
The term “team” should be considered a rather loose designation, because the groups can range from well-organized school troupes and their supporters, to a couple of friends who decide to create their own costumes, puppets or floats. However, the young drummers take things a bit more seriously: They will be competing for musical instruments and other prizes for their schools as part of the National Dream Cup Samba Drum competition.
Photo: CNA
■ The parade will run from 3pm to 6pm, rain or shine.
■ The starting point is Liberty Square; participants will move up Zhongshan S Road (中山南路) to Renai Road (仁愛路), where they turn right and head toward Linsen S Road (林森南路) before making a U-turn that sends them back to Ketagalan Boulevard.
■ There will be a post-parade party with live music on Ketagalan Boulevard from 6pm to 9pm.
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