This year, however, the festival looks set to break its own attendance record not merely due to the feast of programming assembled by the organizers but also because, after 15 years of construction, the Syueshan Tunnel finally opened in June 2006. Although noteworthy in its own right--at 12.9 kilometers the road tunnel is Asia's longest--its relevance to the festival and, indeed to Yilan's tourism in general, is that its completion has knocked up to two-thirds off the two-hour traveling time between the capital and this northeastern county.
Held annually, with the exception of 2003 which was canceled due to the threat of SARS, the festival has attracted increasing numbers of visitors from around the island. Originally focused on water games at Dongshan River's Cinshuei Park, it has continually expanded and is now respected for bringing groups of young performers from around the world to share children's games from their hometowns. This is in keeping with the ICFFF's goal that children learn and enjoy the toys and games of different countries and build international friendships through fun.
This year there are performers from eight European countries, five countries in the Americas, 12 Asian countries, and one each from Africa and Oceania. Many of the groups have returned to perform for a second time having thoroughly enjoyed their first visit.
The Mandambo folk dance troupe from the Central African Republic, on the other hand, is making a first appearance. Established in 1995, the troupe is composed of both adults and adolescents, so as to better pass on the country's traditional dance and music to subsequent generations. In local language, Mandambo means embryo or rebirth. Dances performed by the troupe depict the movements of jungle animals, birds, fish and caterpillars, as well as depicting human issues of death, healing and sacred rituals.
Mandambo dancers wear costumes woven from bark fibers and fur, and decorate their waists and chests with bead jewelry. Music is provided by drums, string instruments, xylophones and bells.
In addition to the international contingent, a total of 17 domestic performance groups are participating in the festival. These include the local Lan Yang Dance Group, which attends every year, usually performing at the opening or closing ceremony.
This year, for the first time, the ICFFF included a parade. In addition to distinctive costumes representing a turtle, penguin, bee, flower, cartoon raindrop character, and even Tom Cruise, there was also an assortment of clowns representing the various traditions of that ancient occupation from around the world. Strutting on giant stilts, riding unicycles or stopping here and there to perform skits, the clowns captured the audience's attention and imagination. Particularly popular were two clowns from Ghana and the Dominican Republic, whose whole bodies were painted black.
Regarding the water games that play a central role in the festival--and for which reason visitors are encouraged to turn up with swimming suits--this year's creations included Top Warrior, which requires participants to scramble to the top of an artificial hill; Golden Arm, in which players use a metal gavel-like tool to pull themselves from shore to shore; The Slider, based on chutes and slides; a ball-based game called Strongman; and Eye of the Storm, which uses rolling tubes to create fantastic visual effects.
Probably the most spectacular facility is City of Mist. After attracting people from throughout the park with its eye-catching pair of onion-topped bronze towers that emit a fine mist, the City then surprises them with random squirts and splashes from variously directed pipes and nozzles. Visitors can join the fun using the water guns and cannons provided.
Vice President Lu Hsiu-lien--dressed as a queen--attended the opening ceremony in the company of local politicians. Describing Yilan as a place of excellent water and beautiful mountains, she acknowledged the area's low levels of pollution, especially when compared to a city such as neighboring Taipei. Referring to the Syueshan Tunnel opening, Lu said the county had a bright future, not merely due to the internationalization of its tourism but, following establishment of an Yilan branch of the Hsinchu Science Park, through agricultural technology too.
Representatives of the Yilan County Government said they were confident that this year's festival, running July 1 to Aug. 20, would set a new record with more than 1 million visitors. They also expressed satisfaction at being in the vanguard of Taiwan's local festival boom, and emphasized the ICFFF's features that offered a model for other festival organizers to follow. The Dongshan River site, for example, was once prone to flooding, which endangered local farmlands, before being renovated and beautified, and having the Cinshuei water theme park built near the river mouth.
This year the ICFFF organizers also sought unprecedented cooperation with the Yilan County Yachting Association, which provided four boats from which festival-goers could appreciate the beauty of both banks of the river from its middle. The association, which organizes sailing competitions and invites teams from colleges overseas, says that, in fact, Yilan County has more than 100 kilometers of coastline suitable for water sports, particularly during the winter when the wind blows steadily from the northeast.
The Wulaokeng site, which is being included in the festival for the first time, has long been popular with locals as a camping area where they could escape the heat of the summer, sit on the shaded rocks and play in mountain streams. A questionnaire circulated among some of the 30,000 first-day visitors suggested that, while they approved of Wulaokeng's inclusion, they still preferred the more exhilarating and challenging games back in Cinshuei Park, the festival's spiritual home.