2026 Keelung Squid Festival

When a Fishing Light Becomes Part of a City’s Brand Memory
Unlike traditional local festivals centered primarily on food, markets, or tourism, the 2026 Keelung Squid Festival is built around the core concepts of “coexisting with the sea” and “sustainable Satoumi,” redefining how fishing culture can be promoted and communicated. Rather than simply showcasing seasonal squid, the festival transforms a centuries-old light-fishing tradition into a city-brand experience encompassing culture, tourism, education, and sustainability. In doing so, night-fishing culture evolves from a local industry into a maritime story that everyone can understand and take part in.
Coinciding with the 400th anniversary of Keelung’s development as a port, the festival adopts the “contemporary interpretation of night-fishing culture” as its central strategy. Through three dimensions of knowledge, experience, and visual storytelling, it transforms the everyday lives of fishermen, squid migration, ecological rhythms, and maritime culture into an immersive journey of participation. From themed event days, the Sea Fishing Academy, and night-fishing experiences to the Wangye Cultural Festival at Sea and fishing-village tours, the program connects diverse venues and communities. A unified visual identity inspired by “fishing lights at sea” further ensures that every participant experience and every photograph shared becomes an extension of Keelung’s city brand.
This year, the festival also moves beyond the conventional model of concentrating activities in a single venue by introducing a series of Squid Month events held across different locations. Distinctive themes are developed around the characteristics of each location, linking local revitalization, cultural preservation, and marine education. In this way, the festival is transformed from a one-off tourism event into a sustainable local cultural brand. The Keelung Squid Festival is not simply about promoting a local fishery product. Through integrated marketing, it seeks to redefine the relationship between people and the sea, and between people and the city. Memories of the harbor, generations of fishing knowledge, and the principles of sustainability are brought together to shape a distinctive urban culture with international recognition, demonstrating the forward-looking brand value of Keelung as a maritime city.