The 2024 Central Taiwan Lantern Festival will run from February 16 to 25 and will take place at Taichung’s Central Park. Taichung City Government Tourism and Travel Bureau Director General Chen Mei-hsiu (陳美秀) says the Central Taiwan Lantern Festival is the largest local lantern festival in the country.
Chen says that this year’s theme 「台中龍賀」is a play on words to also mean "Everything is good in Taichung" in Taiwanese. This also signifies all will be well when visiting Taichung City and conveys the charm and beautiful lifestyle of the city. She says that this year’s main lantern features a dragon 76 meters long placed at a converted flood basin area to spotlight a divine dragon coiling along the dry and wet areas of the basin. With dancers alongside the lantern spinning and tossing illuminated cubes, this evokes the image of the dragon playing with dragon balls.
The opening ceremony on February 16 will also showcase exciting performances by the Diabolo Dance Theatre, Taiwan Aboriginal Dance Culture & Arts Group, and other artists to welcome the start of a wonderful new year. The bureau adds there will also be a "macaron lantern zone," with dessert-themed decorations such as sweets, candies, cakes, and cute stuffed animals, perfect for families to take photos.
Covering an area of over 15 hectares, the festival grounds form eight major thematic lantern zones jointly created by the five bureaus of the Taichung city government.