At some point the city fathers decided they wanted Taichung to be the "cultural center" of Taiwan as well as the geographic center. Part of this resulted in the now annual Jazz Festival that takes place here in October. I attended the first night at People's Square with my son Kevin. We stayed for the first act and got to enjoy the night sights, energy of a crowd together outdoors, and music all for the  same free price. It's great to attend outdoor events in a nice setting and People's Square didn't disappoint. The Barry Likumahuwa Project from Indonesia are a group of young, energetic musicians playing mostly what I call "smooth" or "pop" jazz. Not my favorite but certainly passable under the circumstances. My cynical side would be to call it jazz for people that don't like or "get" jazz but I digress.

I think they were a good choice for an opener since they brought good energy and familiar Asian friendliness to the air. Here are some shots from that night.

Mayor jason Hu, emceee's and other local dignitaries.

The band and it's 15 year old sax player.

As mentioned they had good energy and a lot of movement.

I loved Barry's geeky Atari shirt-a classic. Was ready fro a game of Pong after seeing that...

Hot sax player in jam session from Thailand.

Some of the night lights-nearby Eslite Mall.

Shot of stage from the side.