The long-awaited 2021 Taiwan Lantern Festival has fallen prey to COVID-19, leaving artists and businesses to pick up the pieces.
A dazzling array of lights on slender stalks of bamboo – the main display at Taiwan’s 2021 Lantern Festival – is quite a sight. But would-be visitors will have to wait.
Authorities have cancelled February’s event after Taiwan saw four new domestic cases on Tuesday. Transport Minister Lin Chia-lung is reassuring artists their hard work won’t be for nothing.
He says there will be future opportunities to display their craftwork. But the event in Hsinchu cannot take place as planned.
Meanwhile, restaurants and hotels hoping to profit from the flood of visitors have been left to count the cost.
Hotel PR Manager Rose says they’re already feeling the effects. She says as soon as the event was cancelled, customers began calling to cancel reservations.
But one bright note… without traffic controls in place, hotels near the festival grounds are seeing a bump in reservations for the lunar new year.