Taichung Flower Carpet Festival Draws Huge Crowds on New Year’s Day, Dancing into the New Year with Hope

The Taichung Flower Carpet Festival saw a surge of visitors on New Year’s Day, with dance instructors leading everyone in a collective dance to welcome the new year. (Photo by Chen Shu’e)

The Taichung Flower Carpet Festival has welcomed over one million visitors since its opening on December 23 last year. On January 1, the first day of 2018, the city government specially invited dance instructors to lead the crowd in the “You Are My Flower” flower dance, attracting many enthusiastic participants and showcasing a fresh start for the new year.

The city government specially invited dance instructors to lead visitors from all over Taiwan in a group dance, attracting families to join in the fun and get their bodies moving. Air Boy, the mascot symbolizing Taichung’s “come-and-go convenience,” also joined in the flower dance. Many visitors praised the adorable mascot and took photos with Air Boy, filling the venue with joyful New Year’s cheer.

Chen Yu-cheng, deputy director of the Tourism and Travel Bureau, said that this year is the year of the Taichung Flower Expo. On the first day of the new year, everyone danced together at the Flower Carpet Festival to the song symbolizing the approach of the Flower Expo, “You Are My Flower.” Children and adults alike participated in a morning workout to warm up for the expo, and participants received a special set of Flower Carpet Festival commemorative colored pencils, symbolizing the promise of a colorful and beautiful year ahead.

The Tourism and Travel Bureau noted that this year’s Flower Carpet Festival is a prelude to the 2018 Taichung World Flora Exposition. The design of the main flower carpet closely follows the GNP (Green, Nature, People) values of the Flower Expo, using over 100,000 locally grown flowers. Visitors are welcome to watch the main flower carpet shows held every hour and half-hour to experience the layered display of nature, production, and shared slow-living spirit, conveying the core value of humanistic harmony at the 2018 Flower Expo.

The Flower Carpet Festival runs until the 7th. Traffic control measures will remain in place during the event period, and the public can use the free shuttle buses. The shuttle runs from 8:20 AM to 3:00 PM for the outbound trip and from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM for the return trip. Additionally, the city government has arranged accessible shuttle buses to provide considerate barrier-free services.