Today we began with a performance at a Traditional Market. The one we performed at is called a morning market, and is where various produce vendors bring their vegetables, meat, fruit, and other products to be sold in the morning. Anything not sold before noon, is sold in bulk to restaurants. We performed two short concerts. We added an arrangement of mine of Spring Breezes, a Taiwanese folks song, and boy did the people respond--singing and asking for our first international encore.
After the performance, we had lunch. This consisted of fish ball soup and make-your-own spring rolls, and was provided by our guide and the vendors of the market. We also were serenaded by the guides wife who was also a musician--ending with a sing-along together of "Happy Birthday" in 5 different languages.
Following our performance, we visited the Crayon Castle, a factory for Lucky Art, producer of crayons, markers, and body paints. The factory actually looks like three giant crayons! The tour included demonstrations and hands on DIY on making markers, crayons, and dye. One of the most unique aspects of this place was the slide that spans 8-stories (down the crayon), and gets you back down to the ground level in 15 seconds. We had a blast!!!
We concluded the day watching the first set of concerts for the Yilan International Art festival. It highlighted a Polish Folk group, a School Traditional Chinese Orchestra, A Mongolian Throat Singing group, an American Jazz trio, and a choir from the Philippines. All were excellent!!!!!
