2026 Taipei Arts Festival "The Elephant Is Coming..." debuts, more than 100,000 people crowd Shilin Brewing traffic jam

"The Elephant is Coming..." was a lively parade and attracted the enthusiastic participation of more than 100,000 people. (Photo by reporter Chen Yiquan)

The 2026 Taipei Arts Festival's large-scale outdoor performance "Trois Éléphants Passent..." (Trois Éléphants Passent...) was performed on the streets of Taipei City's Shilin District yesterday. Because it fell on the weekend and it didn't rain, it attracted more than 100,000 people to watch it. It also caused serious traffic jams in the surrounding area and attracted a lot of criticism on the Internet. In response, the Shilin Branch under its jurisdiction today not only mobilized hundreds of police officers to provide traffic guidance, security and other services, but also added 12 positions at important intersections around Taipei MRT Shilin Station to fully devote themselves to maintaining traffic.

The 2026 Taipei Arts Festival, hosted by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Taipei City Government and the Taipei Performing Arts Center, will kick off on the evening of September 5. The organizer invited the French street art representative group "Compagnie Oposito" to lead three huge metal mechanical elephants 4.5 meters high and 8 meters long into the streets of Shilin. The whole process is free and open to the public, creating an exclusive urban carnival party in Taipei.

In response to this event, during the performance yesterday and today, the Shilin Branch will implement full control of Jihe Road (Zhongzheng Road to Wenlin Road) from 17:30 to 19:00 before the performance. Only community residents, monthly rental vehicles and market vendors holding temporary "vehicle passes" can flexibly enter and exit through emergency passages. During the performance period from 19:00 to 21:00, the entire Jihe Road (Zhongzheng Road to Wenlin Road intersection) is completely prohibited from entering and exiting.

The police said that as for the evacuation plan after the event, the police also implemented corresponding diversion measures based on crowds, traffic and other conditions. Especially on the first day of the event yesterday, crowds of people came in droves. Today, the police set up 12 additional posts around the event to strengthen traffic diversion and exit guidance to avoid the recurrence of congestion.