The performing groups of 2016 Nanying International folklore festival have arrived in Taiwan. By means of the festival, many performers from all over the world got the opportunity to visit Taiwan and learn its culture for the first time. The organizer of the festival, Cultural Affairs Bureau of Tainan City Government arranged the official press conference for all the performing groups. Yan, the deputy mayor of Tainan city, will represent the citizens to attend the event to welcome the guests and present our souvenir to show our hospitality.

        The 10th NanYing International Folklore Festival will start from October 8th to October 16th. The history of the festival traces back to 20 years ago since it was first held in 1996. It is the oldest and the only festival in Taiwan that is aimed at protecting intangible cultural heritage and folklore art performance. This year, 17 international groups were invited to participate in this program, including Japanese Ondekoza, Korean Pyeongtaek Nongak Group, Italian Fruppo Folkloric Pro Loco Di Castrovillari, Mexican Compania de Danza Ticuan, Turkish Bursa Tahtakiran Sword Shield Folkdance Association, Bulgarian Dance Formation SOFISTIKJIVO and Ghana Dance Africa Foundation, etc. During the 9 days festival, new friends and old friends are gathering together to celebrate the 20th anniversary of NanYing International folklore festival with refreshing performance.

        Due to the different arrival time of the groups, five of the groups including  Mexico, Philippine, and others will not show up in today’s press conference. Others groups including 12 international groups and 9 local groups are coming together in celebration. To welcome the groups, Cultural Affairs Bureau of Tainan City Government invites Zilog primary school to perform the Song Jiang battle array hoping to impress them by traditional taiwanese Array Arts. The Cultural Affairs Bureau also send the performing groups 2 T-shirts featuring for Tainan folklore style and the notebook designed as the souvenir of the 20th anniversary. Besides, Mayor Yan representing all the tainan citizens is going to present the groups with the local souvenir which is a Door-gods Key Holder. The inspiration of the souvenir is from the traditional folklore religion of Tainan. The Door-gods are important guardians in eastern folk beliefs that keep the households safe. It is a souvenir with practical function and good luck.

        The Cultural Affairs Bureau points out that this Saturday, October 8th, the performing groups are going to attend the parade in Xinying city center. Besides, they are also going to participate in the opening ceremony of the festival. During these 9 days, there are performance in  the main stage of The Nan Ying Green Park and more than 30 performance will be held throughout the city. The Tainan citizens are able to enjoy the best international performance by staying in their own city.

        Except the impressive performance, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of NanYing international folklore festival, the organizations have planned a series of activities, designed all kinds of merchandises for citizens to purchase and recorded a documentary in memory of it’s 20th anniversary. Further information can be found on the website and the Facebook fans page of 2016 NanYing International folklore festival.