Driving, percussive beats greeted us as we were spat out with a wave of people at Yuanshan Station on Saturday. The day started to pulse with energy, the tang of BBQ wafted through the air, hawkers bayed, kids played and dancers swayed while a palpable sense of anticipation permeated the park and surrounds.
Like every other celebration or festival in Taiwan, nothing is ever done by halves. Who would have thought there was enough Latin-American influence in Taipei to sustain a carnivale of this magnitude?! Most of the crowd was made up of gawking onlookers just like us, but there was a fair sprinkling of Latinos throughout the performers, sellers and onlookers to make it a reasonably authentic experience. We did wonder how Taipei girls get involved with dancing in costume (see video above now, or here later), but they applied themselves with lots of vigour and expertise if not with the overt sexuality of the "real thing"!
As is often the case with international festivals, the Taiwanese take it and run with it, putting their own spin on the event and molding it to suit themselves. Drumming? Sure, we'll just wheel out the local high school beat band. They did an excellent job sustaining a hypnotic jungle beat, but it wasn't exactly Carnivale. The Minion and Supertruck blow-up jumping castles for the kids also didn't really fit in, but who cares?! The "special and delicious" foods being sold didn't seem to resemble anything I recognized as Latino.....more stinky dofu and pork dumplings if anything, but again, who cares? It was a rollicking great time and we had lots of fun threading our way through the hordes and soaking up all the sights, sounds and rhythms.
The Three Lions pub at the far end of the eating square at Maji sits just beyond all the cacophony of the open air stages, yet still within the hub of general excitement. We love it there: it has a relaxed vibe and feels just like a "real" pub, as Cass put it. The food is always top quality and the beers on tap very tasty and foreign with a nice side serve of house red. We snared an outside table for two just before the place really started humming and as we ordered, waited and then ate, the crowd filled and filled.
The stage just in front of our area had a succession of dancers and bands enticing the willing crowd milling in front to learn some basic steps and shake their booty, Latin style! The experts showed off some slinky moves, and a few of the Latino boys and girls slithered their snake hips and created quite a heated energy! Local experts joined them, a few brave amateurs tapped and twirled around the perimeters and a bunch of kids tweaked and bopped in between the lot of them! It was a great scene to enjoy our mid-afternoon meal by, and we lingered over the meal and drinks to absorb the fun atmosphere.
We took a leisurely stroll back through all the action in the market area and the park. Cass bought a beautiful and delicate cashmere shawl made in Nepal at one of the stalls, and we saw all sorts of hobby crafts, special foods and even some tiny karaoke booths shaped like an old-fashioned phone box, and just for a couple: what will they think of next?! We trained home in a most convenient fashion and reveled in Cassy's rediscovered health: she could enjoy being out and about in the world again!
Photos: Virg'n Mary have taken to sitting silently near each other in perfect unison and style....(kinda freaky like those two sisters at the end of the hallway in "The Shining"!) Some weird artwork on a local building and various shots of all the action down at the Taipei Carnivale.