Yilan City boasts culture and Yilan International art Festival (YIAF). The festival, the brainchild of Mayor Chiang Tsung-yuan, was held for the first time in 2015 to build bridges of cooperation with the countries of the world and make Yilan’s dream of becoming an international cultural capital come true, all through an exchange of musical art.
The festival meets participants at the airport and offers them a platform for cooperation and interaction with artistic groups and musicians from around the world. In 2015, the first year of the festival, we collaborated with the Philippines National Cultural Commission, and our common achievement was well received. Participating groups got a chance not just to meet but also to get to know one another through exchange. They have subsequently taken the friendships they made to other corners of the world.
The two missions of the festival are 1) to build bridges of world peace, 2) to bring the world to Taiwan and Taiwan to the world. In the service of these two missions, or core values, we hope that the festival can serve a platform of exchange for musicians and arts groups of different nationalities.
The festival is planned and executed by the Formosa Melody Music Center, which invites contemporary musicians and administrative personnel to cooperate in the hopes of generating international energy for local musical groups, cultivating the professional artists, not to mention professional administrative teams, that Yilan needs for international events and sustainable development.
The festival logo consists of two colored arcs, signifying wholeness and integration but also representing a gong. The festival’s spirit is just like a gong, a symbol of luck, power and creation that appears in the Chinese name of the festival. The booming sound produced by a gong represents the dissemination far and wide of the festival’s values. The art by which a gong is made is the refined but steely Taiwan Spirit. It is also the Yilan Spirit. But the festival was founded in the hopes of integrating different cultures to advance understanding and tolerances through music and exchange and make a lasting contribution to world peace.
The Yilan International Art Festival (YIAF) has entered its fourth year. Participants from around the world will give performances with national-cultural characteristics to everyone. Every early autumn the audience were immersed it its unique and rich heritage of each country through the various activities during the festival which highlights Yilan.
I still remember the launching of the Yilan International Festival Directors Meeting beginning of this year(2018).
“Build a platform for international artists and cultural groups, cooperating and provide free environment by sharing and working together announcing that the 4th YIAF will bring richer music to the audience. Therefore we have invited groups from: Italy, South Korea, Spain, New Zealand, the Philippines, Uganda, China, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and 8 local groups from Taiwan. Total of more than 260 artists!
Through this festival I hope everyone will experience our humble town Yilan.
This time we have invited world-class xu yu xiang as our planning coordinator. huang shenquan who coordinated the Taipei universaide lighting stage. An upgrade of the events are expected.
We made special arrangements for our outdoor performances at the diudiu dong park, yilan sports park.
We are hoping that Yilan will be more exciting for everybody. After several years of hard work YIAF has become an iconic activity for artistic circle in Yilan. Thanks to the Formosa Melody Music Center for being the key organizer for the event.
We sincerely would like to invite everyone to come and participate, enjoy, the beautiful life of Yilan... through people, art, literature, nature and international diversity.
Welcome to YIAF!
Welcome to Yilan!
Mayor of City Government of Yilan
Chairman of the Festival
The presence of arts and cultures are like laurels won that honor urban centers for their great achievements. Gone through challenges and shifts over a long period of time, the Yilan International Art Festival has seen itself develop into a landmark event that displays the spirit of Yilan. It has functioned as a platform where international exchanges, performances and co-exhibitions are made possible and real, bringing many of us closer to the international community. It has also served as an agent that motivates and encourages creativity and builds consensus in identifying with cultures. Furthermore, it unifies the sense of pride residents living in Yilan take on.
For several years, we have always used a variety of creative ideas to present and promote international music festivals, from working with the Philippine Rondalla Festival, partnering with MIT painted pianos in piano creation and Taiwanese opera performance, inviting a French saxophone quartet to provide accompaniment for “Pretending to be Immortals”, to this year’s cross-sense combination where musical concert and coffee enjoyment go hand in hand, granting you a unique experience of reveling in the beauty of music and the aroma of coffee, easing your senses in vision, hearing, smelling and tasting all at once.
To advance further, we have held the International Festival Director’s Meeting in Yilan, Taiwan this year. Festival directors from different nations shared their event holding experiences in the meeting. Coming together, the Directors have proposed a project called “Arts Better the World”. With the support of Yilan Mayor Chiang, Tsung-Yuan and people from all walks of life, in August, we successfully held some international social services in Indonesia, such as establishing music and English classrooms, thereby making an effort to transform lives through arts and show Taiwan’s presence and contribution to the world.
This year, the art festival connects with the “Arts Better the World” project. Through the arts, it also promotes a better living environment where arts and cultures merge to encourage and inspire all Yilan residents for worldview explorations. The art festival will surely build and cement the consensus among us as fellow residents of Yilan as well as develop and establish Yilan’s new values founded on arts and cultures. My fellow friends, are you ready to join us for this exciting adventure? You are all invited to come to the Yilan International Art Festival and enjoy a quality “life embedded in arts.”
Vincent Li
