The leafy
mountainside of
This year's musical offerings include Afro-Caribbean drum and dance troupe Pan Africana, Taiwanese fuzz rockers 88 Guava seeds and Rabbit is Rich, oldtime jug band music from David Chen & the Muddy Basin Ramblers, roots and reggae from festival veterans The Anglers, The Admissionaries and Uli and the Brood, blues by Boogie Chillin' and BoPoMoFo, punk from Divebomb and Heavy Smoker, Rockabilly from Tainan's Full House, groovy folk by Faye & the Slacks, live electronica by Viba, Macedonian and world fusion music by Paparazzi and the Macedonian Music Band, mountain songs by Sophie and Cemelesai, who are members of popular aboriginal group Totem, big-band funk and soul from Taichung super-group The Money Shot Horns, a trilingual punk rock musical puppet show by Ren Jian Bao Theatre Company, all stripes of rock and roll by Changhua's the idiots, Hualien's Mister Green and Highway 9, Taichung’s .22, Chiayi’s Ad Hoc, Tainan’s Charlie Swiggs Band, and Taipei’s Public Radio, Rocket Grrrl, and to a god unknown, plus DJs Marcus Aurelius, Dragon, and Soundmindset for the wee hours.
Music runs from
This year the
festival has been timed to coincide with the full moon (which falls
on Friday), and Friday night has been stacked with talent, including
Faye & the Slacks, the Anglers (playing their last show for the
foreseeable future), Public Radio, .22, and DJs Marcus Aurelius &
Dragon. Sunset Saturday features the peace
circle, followed shortly thereafter by a fire show.
Admission is free on Sunday, and kids' activities run all
day.
From its
humble beginnings in 2003, back when the war in Iraq was just a
really bad idea rather than the very real quagmire it has become,
Hoping for Hoping has always tried to not only protest against the
war, but also to offer a positive alternative to a way of life based
on violence and coercion. The organizational
model is based on the values of consensus, co-operation, and
transparency. The Peace Festival sets itself
apart in that it is completely non-profit and totally run by
volunteers. The organizers are very excited to
see the festival gathering momentum year by year, and growing into
something that can sustain itself through the usual
comings-and-goings that characterize expat life here.
This year the number of charity recipients has been reduced,
so that a bigger impact can be made for each one.
The Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR) and Taiwan
International Workers' Association (TIWA) are back again this year,
along with newcomer Basic Human Needs, which runs a free school and
clinic for street kids in
The volunteers behind Hoping for Hoping invite everyone to come and join them to party for a good cause. “It’s a meeting of minds,” says co-organizer Scott Cook, “people who sincerely want to change themselves, this island, and the world, even just a little bit, for the better.” Got something more important to do with your weekend?
