From the biggest fireworks demonstration to the longest rave, Taiwan will see out 2005 with a choice of superlatives from north to south. Taipei residents can again watch the world's tallest building serve as the launch pad for the country's largest fireworks display and crowds converging on Taitung's Museum of Prehistory can join in on a 30-hour rave.
Biggest and longest aside, this year's celebrations will arguably be the best the island has seen to date, with local governments spending serious money to keep revelers outdoors until the early hours.
Starting down south, the Taitung County Government is mounting its now annual New Year's celebration, but expanding the event, focusing more on dance music and stretching the whole thing over a day and a half. Festivities start tonight at the Museum of Prehistory and conclude with a sunrise watch on the beach at Taimali (
Revelers will be invited to vote for their favorite of the 36 DJs scheduled to play and the lucky winner (our guess: whoever's on the decks when the clock strikes 12am) will receive NT$60,000 cash. In an unorthodox twist on a rave, organizers have said to expect rock and roll to be thrown into a mix of rap and electronic music.
Big bash
The whole shebang is the capper to the county government's Taitung Travel Year and organizers hope to attract upwards of 50,000 revelers to the Prehistory Museum, across town at the Taimali beach and at all the city's restaurants and hotels in between.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TAIPEI 101NMORE JOY FROM LAST YEAR.
"With beautiful beaches and beautiful mountains, Taitung is the perfect place to enjoy the end of 2005 and have a good start to 2006," the county's deputy magistrate Kuang Li-zhen (
Bitter cold
She may be right, but blustery cold weather nearly scuppered last year's event. Revelers stayed long enough to see in 2005, but headed someplace warmer minutes afterward, leaving the rock and roll rave nearly deserted.
They'd likely had enough of the music anyway. Last year's "live music concert" was entirely canned, with a series of obvious and embarrassing mistakes that gave the performers away. Asked why they decided to use prerecorded music, organizers said that "It's that way all the time at big concerts -- it's safer."
No less live will be the pop concert taking place near the steps of City Hall in Taipei's Xinyi District. But instead of a sunrise on the beach, the capital city offers a view of the Taipei 101 building, which engineers have spent the week scaling in order to rig with several tonnes of fireworks to be lit at the stroke of midnight.
Our A-mei
In addition to the concert, which will start at 7pm and feature familiar faces such as A-mei (張惠妹), Mayday, FIR, and Stephanie Sun, several other activities will take place in the surrounding area.
At the southeastern corner of City Hall, a street dancing area will be set up to host the finals of the MRT Cup Pop Music Contest, starting at 1am and going until 5am. On another side of City Hall, the area will also host performances by street artists, visual artists, and musicians.
From 1:30am to 4:40am the Warner Village Courtyard will be the site of the White Nights Crazy Music festival, with DJ Lim Giong (
Songshou Park will be transformed in to a Hakka tea garden, complete with waiters dressed in traditional Hakka costumes serving an assortment of Hakka teas and desserts until 5am. And the Ho-Yi-Yam indigenous cuisine area will be set up in the A10 parking lot (next to Shinkong Mitsukoshi A8 building) selling handicrafts and foods from Taiwan's indigenous tribes.
And if you don't want to wade into the crowds, you can still enjoy the sights come midnight.
"The good thing about celebrating in Taipei is, no matter where you are, all you have to do is step outside to enjoy the fireworks display; you can see the 101 from almost everywhere," said Lo Chih Cheng (
`Grand opening'
Lo was speaking at another landmark event, the opening of Eslite's new giant flagship bookstore and boutique adjacent to City Hall MRT station. The bookstore, will have its "grand opening" at the New Year, providing another good reason to check out the Xinyi District tomorrow night.
In addition to Eslite, which will be open 24 hours a day from now on, other shops in the area will be extending their operating hours to accommodate the crowds. The Taipei 101 Mall will stay open until 11:30pm and its food court will stay open until 2am. The Novel Hall center court cafe will remain open until 5am. New York, New York will keep its doors open until midnight and the Starbucks downstairs will be open until 2am. Next Door at Neo 19, the food court will be serving until 5am and movies will run at Warner Brothers Village, also until 5am.
EVENT NOTES:
In Taipei, the celebration in the streets of the Xinyi District will begin in the afternoon and go until 5am New Year's Day. Attendees are encouraged to take public transportat to the site and give themselves plenty of time to get there as the MRT is expected to be running at maximum capacity close to midnight. The MRT will run until the early hours.
In Taitung, festivities start tonight at the Museum of Prehistory, move to the beach at Taimali and go until past dawn the morning of New Year's Day. Shuttle busses will be running between the museum and the beach. The Museum of Prehistory is located adjacent the Kangle train station.
Entrance to both events is free.
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