This year’s Taiwan Lantern Festival will highlight low carbon and green energy values, according to the organizers.
The festival, which opens on Feb. 24 in the Taiwan High Speed Rail Station District in Hsinchu County, will showcase local customs and modern technologies, the county government said in a recent statement.
The centerpiece will be the theme lantern towering more than 20m high and weighing 26 tonnes, but other eye-catching lighting installations will also be on display, Wim Chang (張楊乾), deputy executive director of the Delta Electronics Foundation, said yesterday.
One of them, a 10m high, 70m wide “Ring of Celestial Bliss,” is a 270° curved screen made entirely of reusable or recycled materials and will be the largest and most eco-friendly lantern in the world, Chang said.
The steel and bamboo used to build it can be recovered or recycled, and the recycled PET plastic used to make the inner projector screen will be transformed into 600 to 700 environmentally friendly bags at the end of the event.
The Ring also uses 155 LED strips, which can save up to 80 percent of the energy used by more common halogen lights, the foundation said.
“It combines the most energy-efficient high-definition projection technology with culture, art and LED lighting design,” Chang said.
Films on sustainability will be projected onto the Ring during the festival to raise public awareness of the issue, he said.
“We’d like visitors to pay more attention to such issues while enjoying the beauty of the lanterns on-site,” Chang said.
The annual event, now in its 24th year, will be held from Feb. 24 to March 3 in Hsinchu County, with parades, artistic performances and many other activities.
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