Taipei City Government

Passionate samba, unrestrained African drumming and dancing, exotic Middle Eastern music and dance, and mystical Indian music and dance. One troupe after another passes by, and you can't help but move to the beat of the drums, and as each sumptuously festooned float rolls by and sky-high stilt walkers loom above the crowds, people cannot help but stand transfixed, grabbing for their cameras.

This is the wonderful Dream Carnival, an annual big-bang party created from imagination by Xizhi's Dream Communit and Neihu Community College, bringing together the people from communities all around Taiwan and indigenous-village schools. It has become a sort of pilgrimage, with more than 10,000 now coming for the fun each year, throwing themselves into the grand street party with gusto. This year, it happens on Oct. 22, with the big kickoff outside Taipei City Hall.

This is the 10th Dream Carnival, bigger than ever before. Talent will be coming from all around Taiwan and from much, much further away too—from Brazil, the US, England, France, and elsewhere—representing organizations and schools and also including over 20 individual artists from overseas. You'll witness a rollicking carnival parade bursting with wildly creative costumes, boisterous bands, and frolicking dance teams proudly displaying ethnic differences, all coming together in a boisterous and happy "fusion" gathering. As a much-anticipated bonus, a group from France's Carnaval de Nice, one of the world's three greatest carnivals, has been invited to come join in the Taiwan fun and engage in fruitful tourism and cultural interchange.

Also, in keeping with the spirit of the carnival and demonstrating the passionate care felt for Taiwan's environment, community, and culture, artists are using discarded materials in innovative ways to magically transform junk into art, doing their part to promote the concepts of recycling and eco-protection, and using discussions on the artistic innovation process to convey to carnival participants and spectators the concerns they harbor in their hearts on the need to nurture Mother Earth.

Ever wanted to be a reveller in a car nival parade instead of an onlooker? Here's your chance, for one and all are warmly invited to come join and contribute to the happiness. This carnival is no wild, aimless street party, no meaningless spoof or parody—it is the heartfelt gathering together of like-minded people who want to cry out to each other that we must do something, and now, to protect our natural world and our place in it. "Street art" is being used as the catalyst. This demonstration of Taipei's cultural vitality and diversity being used as a means to both bring joy to the streets and light a fire under people's feet.