◆ Origin 


“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is the classic art festival of Yonghe. It is also an artistic tradition that has been held for more than a dozen years in Yonghe. The performance is held on weekend evenings every July and August. People enjoy the artistic evening while being gently brushed by the summer night breezes. It resembles the scene of dancing with the fairies from the classical work of Shakespeare, unleashing people’s romantic fantasy. Thus, the romantic Yonghe people decided to name this series of activities “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. It has become a unique lifestyle for residents in Yonghe and is the most-anticipated local event every summer. This year, the serial activities of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will be led by little fairies who are taking the public to embark on an imaginative fantasy: pop music immerses in the fantasy world; timeless ballads take the public to experience different lives; traditional art night offers the public a chance to experience history; and with the participation of diverse local quality performing groups, every music concert is like a magical experience filled with fantasy and surprises. 


◆ Activities


The curtain of “The 2014 New Taipei City Yonghe Midsummer Night’s Dream” will be lifted at the Renai Park in Yonghe District and New Taipei City Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in July. The local government has designed themed activities targeting different age groups while inviting outstanding performing groups to bring the public quality shows and exhibiting results of the local performing groups over time and the unique local cultural features. Rich, diverse and quality shows will allow the public to experience the cultural charms and passion unique to New Taipei City.


1.Dreams Taking Off Concert: 19:00-21:00 (Saturday) at Renai Park in New Taipei City
Everyone has a “dream”, which as time goes by, waiting quietly to start flourishing. Tonight, let the talented song writer/singer Xu Jia-Yin open up the curtain for our dreams to take off with her exquisite and serene voice. Other participating performers include TOFFEE, Bi, Jiajia, Li Wei-Fang and Wei Li-An. Along with the colorful screen made by LED and lighting designs, the audience is guaranteed to a fantasy feast for both eyes and ears. 

2.A Night of The Golden Melodies – Timeless Ballad Concert at 19:00-21:00 (Sun) on July 6 at Renai Park in Younghe District, New Taipei City 

Listening to those timeless ballads is like getting on a time machine that takes us through a time tunnel. Famous singers such as Tiger Huang, Huang Fe, Sun Shu-Mei, Hong Jin-Yao, Lin Jun-Jin, Xie Le and Yu Yin-Yin are going to sing the sourness, sweetness, bitterness, and spice in life with their unique voices, taking the audience to go through the ups and downs of life and experience happiness. Eight famous bands are there to play lively music in the background, allowing the audience to experience the unique charms of live music and to be touched in the heart. 

3.A Night of Wild Melodies – A music concert by Mei-Ling Holistic Music School at 19:00-21:00 (Sat) on July 12 at New Taipei City Sun Yat-Shin Memorial Hall

Established in 2002, Mei-Ling Holistic Music School is famous for its free and creative style. It takes the audience to go beyond space and races and embark on a fantasy journey of music with their percussion music. The program includes Taiwan trilogy – remembering the old songs, classic ballads of southeast Asia – Sasayangai, passionate and powerful indigenous suites, music played on instruments made of recycled daily objects, suites for remembering the superstar Deng Li-Jin, Disney cartoon music and suites from Hayao Miyazaki’s animation….a concert that is both pleasant and hard to forget. 

4.A Night of Sounding Music – Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra Music Concert at 19:00-21:00 (Saturday), July 26 at New Taipei City Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall

The Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra was established in 2000 and is a Chinese instrument orchestra. The Orchestra has been promoting Chinese music rigorously and has been invited to perform in Germany, Canada, Hong Kong, Holland and Mainland China; furthermore, it is one of the chosen performing groups sponsored by the Ministry of Culture. Its artistic achievements are highly recognized by the public. The program prepared for this event includes : Wind Blows, Just Like the Gentle Way You Treated Me, A Thankful Heart, Spanish bull-fight dance pieces, Yang-Ming-Chun-Xiao, Dou-Dou-Dan…performed by pipe instruments, plucked string instruments, string instruments, and percussion instruments…etc. Such a rich program is a perfect presentation of musical techniques and artistic cultivation of this new-generation orchestra.


5.Dancing the Night Away - A Dynamic Summer Night – A dance performance by Wen Hua Dance Studio at 19:00 – 21:00 (Saturday) on August 2 at S New Taipei City un Yat-Senn Memorial Hall 

Wen Hua Dance Studio was established in 1999, led by Ms. Xu Chiao-Lin, has been setting deep roots in Yonghe for many years, aiming to cultivate top professional dancers. The style of the dance company is to combine both traditional and creative elements in order to present the diverse beauty of dance. With quality performances, they will take the audience to experience the beauty of dance directly. The date of the performance is on Chinese Valentine’s Day and both the performers and the local government hope that with the trueness, goodness and beauty of dance and the beautiful melodies and flowing body language, the seeds of happiness are spread around to convey the message of love to everyone. 


6.The Representative Elegance of Traditional Art – By Holo Taiwanese Opera at 19:00-21:00 (Saturday) on August 9 at Renai Park, Yonghe District, New Taipei City

Since its establishment, Holo Taiwanese Opera has been upholding the objectives of “respect tradition, dare to innovate” to lead the trend toward exquisite Taiwanese operas. The opera troup has been awarded the “Folk Art Heritage Award”, “Taipei City Culture Award”, and “The Golden Bell Award.” The program of this year’s show – “Mei Yu Pei” – is one of the classic programs of Holo Taiwanese Opera. But, the stage is after all the sacred temple of Taiwanese Operas, Holo Taiwanese Opera has transformed the exquisite Taiwanese Opera on TV into an exquisite stage version for the audience. How do the star-crossed lovers, the unfortunate first-degree scholar Xu Jin-Mei and the lady of high government official Su Zhen-Yu, “confront death fiercely in order to survive at the end?” How does the fire set by Zhen-Yu’s sister-in-law get them to live happily ever after? The Mei-Yu-Pie seen on TV is leaping onto the stage to reproduce the romance of Taiwanese operas. 

◆ Activity Schedule