The 2023 New Year's Day flag-raising ceremony at the Presidential Office on Sunday will feature a series of performances that start at 5:10 a.m., while the singing of the national anthem and flag-raising is scheduled to start at 6:27 a.m., event organizers said Monday.
Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office, where the main stage is set up, will open to the public at 4:30 a.m., according to event organizers.
The event will start with a performance by Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Girls High School's marching band, while the marching band of Taipei Municipal Jianguo Senior High School, which won third place at the 19th World Music Contest in the Netherlands in August, will also perform, event organizers added.
Meanwhile, a percussion group founded by Steven Chang (???), a famous drummer in Taiwan, will also give a show.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (???) of the main opposition Kuomintang has been invited to attend the event and is set to arrive between 5 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. and stay in the Presidential Office before the singing of the national anthem and the flag-raising ritual procedures, said Yeh Kuo-yi (???), CEO of the Taiwan chapter of the Lions Clubs International, MD300 Taiwan, the main organizer of the event.
The arrangement was specifically mentioned as the images of then-Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (???) standing in frigid air outside the Presidential Office for a period of time while waiting for the 2022 New Year's Day flag-raising ceremony to commence sparked controversy.
The theme of the 2023 New Year's Day flag-raising ceremony is "Together We Can," according to MD300.
Taiwan's importance to the world has been widely recognized during the COVID-19 pandemic and the post-COVID era, MD300 Council Chairman Chang Cheng-chung (???) said, adding that the upcoming New Year's Day flag-raising ceremony will be even more special.
The main visual design of the New Year's Day flag-raising ceremony will highlight the concepts of "resilience" and "connection," to symbolize that Taiwan has a shared future with the democratic world, according to designer Lai Chun-hung (???).
During the ceremony, members of MD300 will lead the singing of the national anthem and a limited number of face masks will be handed out as gifts, according to event organizers.
A three-phase traffic control measures will be implemented from 9 p.m. on Dec. 31 to 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2023 for the event, the organizers added.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel