6 Taiwanese performing groups participate in Festival Off Avignon

Avignon, July 5 (CNA) Six Taiwanese performing groups are vying for the attention of tens of thousands of visitors in Avignon, France, where the Festival Off Avignon is being held through July 26.

This year marks Taiwan's 19th official appearance at the Festival Off Avignon, Hu Ching-Fang (胡晴舫), director of the Taiwan Cultural Center in Paris, told CNA.

In 2024, Taiwan was honored as the festival's first-ever guest of honor, Hu said, with 350 portraits of Taiwanese people displayed on historic walls throughout the city.

The highlights of this year's lineup of acts from Taiwan, Hu said, were the award-winning duet "Push and Pull" (推拉) by Hung Dance, "Mutual" (共) by Mailantia Dance Theater, and the drama "Palingenesis" (㒩) by D_Antidote Production.

Meanwhile, Focasa Circus returns with the show "Amour Utopique" (愛情烏托邦), the Ping Shadow Dance Theatre will present "Indigo" (靛), and the Lee-Ming Institute of Technology's Department of Drama and Theatre is back with the production "Love oh Love!," she said.

The festival opened Saturday with a parade that drew thousands of spectators in 35-degree Celsius heat as artists filled the streets with music, dance, and theatrical flair, offering a preview of the more than 1,700 performances scheduled over the next three weeks.

Among those in the parade, the Taiwan contingent -- led by the cultural center in Paris -- marched with a banner reading "Taïwan in Avignon."

Its blue lettering against a bright yellow background symbolized Taiwan's identity as an island nation and the vibrant summer in Avignon.

As performers entertained the crowd with snippets of their craft, other group members handed out flyers, trying to encourage people to attend their upcoming shows at one of the 139 participating local theaters.

According to the festival's organizers, more than 40,000 admission tickets were sold the day before the festival officially opened.