So beautiful！The Kaohsiung Lantern Festival kicks off with dazzling fireworks lighting up the Love River

▲The 2015 Kaohsiung Lantern Festival opens, with fireworks illuminating the Love River. (Photo / Kaohsiung City Government)

Reported by Chen Zi-Yin / Compiled by staff

The 2015 Kaohsiung Lantern Festival officially kicked off in grand style yesterday (21st), with Mayor Chen Chu announcing the start of the 23-day festival. The event featured not only unique lantern displays but also lively water theater performances, riverside fireworks, and dazzling light sculptures that illuminated the Love River banks in a spectacular glow.

This year’s Kaohsiung Lantern Festival is themed “Overflowing with Happiness” to celebrate the Year of the Sheep. Artists were invited to create 14 large-scale themed lanterns under four major themes: “Harbor Mambo,” “Play of Water and Light,” “Prayers for Peace,” and “Go with the Flow.” The festival also includes a competition for participants’ lantern decorations and a nighttime light projection show against the backdrop of the century-old Taiwan Bank Building.

From now until March 15th, the Kaohsiung Lantern Festival will be held along the Love River and in the City Light Corridor, continuing the “Love & Happiness” main theme.Mayor Chen Chu noted that this year’s festival has expanded to multiple lantern zones, bringing joy to the Love River, Gushan, Qishan, Gangshan, and Fo Guang Shan. On March 7th, there will also be a grand lantern parade with thousands of participants. During the festival, the organizers will set off stunning fireworks along the Love River and introduce an overseas-designed water screen projection called “The Eye of Kaohsiung.” Located on the midsection of the west Love River Road, it combines flame effects, high-altitude spotlights, water fountains, special-effect fireworks, water screen imagery, and lasers. Together with the riverside fireworks and water dance, it projects beautiful images of Kaohsiung using water screen technology.


▲Fireworks and water screen visual effects will be featured during the lantern festival. (Photo / Kaohsiung City Government)

Additionally, this year’s themed lantern is the adorable “Little Sheep Lantern,” with the sheep holding a bunch of Kaohsiung’s specialty fruit — lychees. Named “Lively Lychee Sheep,” it represents the vibrant atmosphere of the city. The small lanterns will be distributed at the Love River service desk on the Yuanxiao Festival (March 5th), and an extra distribution will be held along the parade route on March 7th during the “Love & Happiness Grand Lantern Parade.”