Next weekend, Taipei’s Wanhua District will celebrate an increasingly popular pastime with Taiwan’s first exhibition dedicated to tents.
The 2014 Spotlight on the Waterfront Tent Festival (2014亮點水岸帳篷節) is a two-day outdoor showcase on the history and latest trends of the camping industry, mainly tents.
In one wing, visitors can enter rarely-seen tents intended for rapid deployment: command post tents, general-purpose expandable tents, tents for large crews and mobile kitchens — trailers with frying pans, pressure cookers and other equipment that let soldiers enjoy hot food on the field.
Photo: Hsieh Chia-chun, taipei times
The free event includes cutting-edge motor homes, caravans, campers and plenty of tents, some spare and others sumptuous.
There is the Doppelganger, a Japanese line of candy-colored tents that pop into place like an umbrella.
“Recently we have been moving toward vibrant colors and nimble design,” said Gavin Tsai (蔡及文) of Hazelwoods, which distributes Doppelganger in Taiwan. “Our tents can be pitched in less than a minute, so even novices can go camping.”
There is the uPON, winner of the 2011 IF Concept Design Award and the 2014 Red Dot Award. Made in Taiwan, the uPon is a single-person tent that weighs less than 1,100 grams.
The tent is kept light because the design does away with the traditional frame. Instead, the tent is held up on one end by a triangular pillar of air. The other is supported by a bicycle.
“We created a tent that is suitable for a cyclist traveling alone,” said uPon brand manager Wu Der-shin (伍德馨).
Spotlight on the Waterfront Tent Festival also features camping equipment like lanterns, sleeping bags and chuck boxes, as well as live music and performances.
Instructors from National Taiwan Sport University (體育大學) will teach slacklining, a form of tightrope walking using slack rope that bounces like a trampoline.
The festival takes place along the Xindian River (新店溪河) at Machangding Memorial Park (馬場町紀念公園).
Since 2000, Machangding has been a memorial site and recreational park for cycling and waterfront activities, said Lee Chong-hua (李重華), one of the nine Wanhua District borough chiefs who is promoting the event.
During the Japanese colonial era, Machangding was a main military training ground. It was later used as an Air Force base and an execution ground for those the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) accused of being Communists and other political prisoners during the Martial Law era.
“Machangding is a place where people really did use military tents and other tents, and now it will be a place for a lot more,” he said.
Today, Taiwan has over 1,070 registered campsites that have met a boom of interest in recreational camping.
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