Origin

2013 New Taipei City International Drum Art Festival is a continuation of the International Drum Art Festival which began in 2007.  Using the world-renowned “Xiangrenhe Drum and Bell Factory“ as its historical background and Xiangrenhe’s drums as its spiritual theme, it brings out a brand image made up of an insistence on quality, local training and cultivating as well as attitudes to make quality products. Through cultural education and artistic healing, the local government promotes drum-making craftsmanship and the fun of playing drums unique to New Taipei City. Via various stationary exhibitions and dynamic performances, people will be able to get to know the beauty of drum craftsmanship. The local government hopes to further cohere passion for playing drums among schools, community groups, units and individuals in order to shape the cultural characteristics unique to New Taipei City – A City of Drums and further show to the world its growth and energy.

Objectives

To embody the cultural soft power of the elevated New Taipei City, the city government hopes that through organizing the New Taipei City Fun Dance Festival, its rich and diverse culture will be displayed to the world while accomplishing the following objectives through actively focusing on and cohering energetic activities:

Shape cultural themes: Creating a themed cultural activity to promote the overall development of the local cultural industry via quality performances that attract media coverage and the public participation.

Care for art groups: Inviting top performing groups to perform and interact with students and people at schools, social welfare organizations and social education institutes in order to comfort peoples’ hearts with the truth, goodness and beauty of art and exhibit its social responsibility.

Gather local resources: Combining all local cultural characteristics to deeply root the local culture and tourism development while constructing a new image of the “City of Drum Arts” for New Taipei City.

Pass on art and culture: Outstanding domestic and international performers are invited to engage in drum art exchange activities and promote the inheritance of drum arts via “drum art exchange activities among schools”.

Reinforce the cultural recognition: Brilliant performances by professional performing groups add cultural charm to the city drum and dance arts.  Also offering people the chance to participate in activities and enjoy the performances to reinforce their cultural recognition while gathering the rich art energies of New Taipei City and showing them to the world.

Promote cultural exchanges: To expand the range of participation, invited groups will be performing in the main areas of New Taipei City to promote drum art exchange and the uniqueness and cultural characteristics of Xinzhuang Xiangrehhe Drums.

Activities

National Drum Competition: Provide the space and stage to drum-art-lovers all over Taiwan to exhibit their skills and creativity as well as offer more chances for people to participate/attend art performance, create a quality cultural environment and continue to organize the “National Drum Competition”. By inviting drum-art lovers and groups from all over Taiwan to participate in this competition, drummers all over Taiwan will be gathered in New Taipei City.  Winning groups are invited to perform in various art activities held in New Taipei City.  Professional drummers and scholars have been invited as judges for the competition. The champions of the competition will be performing at the final section of the drum-art festival with top international drum art groups.

 
Cultural Exhibitions: Drum-making master Wang Xi-Gun of the Xianrenhe Drums and Mater Wu Zong-Lin of the Jinshusheng Gongs are invited to bring a special cross-field exhibition of drums vs gongs, breaking any stereotypes the public might have regarding traditional craftsmanship while bringing new experience and creativity to traditional craftsmanship. 

The Drum Art Night: Well-known drum art performing groups from all over Taiwan are invited to participate in this event.   The depth and breadth of drum art is displayed to the public, thanks to the well-chosen themed program.  With this program, performing groups are offered a platform to express themselves, and participants in the event are given a chance to cultivate their aesthetic sense.

The Dynamic Drum Exhibition: Organized with “The Drum Art Night” is the dynamic drum exhibition that introduces drums made by Xianrenhe.  With the exhibited drums and explanation boards, participants can further understand the history of the Drum Art Festival and the values of the brand that Master Wang Xi-Gun of Xianrenhe works so hard to achieve.


Playing Drums First Hand: Organized with the “Drum Art Night”, a drum-playing area is set up around the main venue, offering people a chance to experience first-hand fun of playing drums.  Through the form of art education, participants are able to learn from the experience while enjoying the fun of playing drums as well as exploring different notes.

Drum Art Performances on Campus: Domestic performing groups are invited to perform in at least 10 schools in New Taipei City and a drum team in each school will perform a show afterwards for these professionals to interact with each other, achieving the goals of rooting drum art deeply on campus as well as allowing students to observe and learn.

Composing the Themed Song: A simple and easy to play themed song is composed and recorded.  In addition to being used in audio promotion, it is also offered to drum teams for practice, achieving the goal of establishing drum art locally.