Spring Scream or spring break? At least seven outdoor concerts, raves and parties will take place in Kenting next weekend, and for an 18-year-old Taipei girl like Tsai-ping, it presents a tough decision.
"I want to go to all of them," she said. "Since high school I've always wanted to go."
The parties of Kenting's Spring Weekend, the first weekend in April, have become a beacon for Taiwanese youth. Police estimate that last year's events attracted between 2,000 and 3,000 young people. Event organizers put the total closer to 7,000 or 8,000. This year everyone agrees that it will be bigger.
With four major parties there will be a lot to choose from (see stories page 18). Next Saturday night will pit Japan's superstar DJ Takkyu Ishino against the million-CD-selling pop act Mayday (五月天), underground bands from New York, Japan and Hong Kong, and Taipei's top club DJs.
Rave promoter David Jr. has said he's "trying to give Taiwan its own Ibiza or Koh Phangan."
It's a demographic sponsors can't ignore. This year HBO, MTV, Sony Music and any number of beer and liquor brands have added their support for the first time. EMI Music will also scout the event, said one promoter. "Our target market is young people, especially young people at musical events," said Shawn Yue of Jardine Caldbeck, which markets Bacardi rum.
"[Kenting's Spring Weekend] is a famous event. We consider it a very good opportunity," she said.
The whole Kenting phenomenon rose out of a concert called Spring Scream, which this year will showcase more than 150 bands over four days.
"It started off as not much more than an overgrown birthday party, only it wasn't anyone's birthday," said Jimi Moe, one of Spring Scream's two expat organizers.
The first event of 1995 had about 300 people and a handful of bands. Moe's only prior experience was "out in the sugar cane fields [around Taichung] throwing parties in these gun turrets."
Since the beginning, Spring Scream has idealistically aimed to be cheap and democratic, showing as many bands as possible and, as co-organizer Wade Davis put it, "getting down to what music is really about." There are no sponsors, bands are unpaid and the staff consists of volunteers even now. The festival was essentially set up as an alternative event even though at the beginning there was no mainstream to react against.
Oddly, a mainstream has since grown up around it. Two years ago the weekend saw its first rave, and last year rave attendance beat out Spring Scream. David Jr. claims around 5,000 came to his Moonlight Party -- one of two raves held -- on last year's Saturday night alone, while Spring Scream claimed around 3,000 for the entire weekend.
Kenting's population is less than 1,800, so these partiers come from elsewhere, mostly big cities like Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichung.
Mei Huang runs Maussac, a Taipei tea shop, and Jordan Chang manages a popular Kaohsiung pub, the Pig and Whistle. Both employ college age workers and share the same complaint. "All our employees want to go to Kenting, but if they do, there won't be anyone left here to work," said Huang.
For students like Tsai-ping, the pilgrimage is neither quick nor cheap.
Spring Scream costs NT$1,200. So does a party called Love Mansion, for which a Taipei nightclub has rented out an entire 67-room hotel. The Moonlight Make a Wish Party costs NT$2,000 for three days or NT$800 per night, and MTV's nightclub party costs NT$400 a night. On top of that there are hotel rooms and tickets for the eight hour bus ride from Taipei."We've been saving money for two months and I'm still not sure if it's enough, but I'll probably go anyway," Tsai-ping said.
RSS