Closing out tonight's show will be Panai, an Aboriginal diva whose heart-breaking songs of a life of hardship have earned her praise as one of the best voices in Taiwan.
Tomorrow 11 bands will duke it out on the main stage for the Indie Music Awards. Bands such as Rubinton (路邊攤), Relax One (輕鬆玩) and Monkey Insane (潑猴) have been around for some time, while the group that has raised a lot of anticipation and stirred the most controversy is the high school girl punk trio Hotpink.
In the nitpicky, back-stabbing world of local Internet chatrooms Hotpink have been thrashed as "gimmicky" and "token finalists" because of their gender and age. Conversely, when organizers announced the finalists, they singled out Hotpink as a band to watch at the competition.
Last year's winners, Tizzy Bac, a cutesy pop-rock ensemble that could have been spawned of a union between Belle and Sebastien and St. Etienne, will end the day of music before the winners of the NT$200,000 award are announced.
The heavy hitters of the festival will play on Sunday. Starting things off will be Magic Tribe (夢幻部落), an Atayal Aboriginal rock band from Wulai, Taipei County, followed by the fusion rock-jazz of the Junk Band from Hong Kong and Macau. As the sun goes down local stars Sticky Rice (糯米糰) should get everyone in the groove with their quirky funk and sing-along rock tunes before the festival's headliners the Perishers and Jaurim hit the stage.
The Perishers are one of a handful of new bands from Sweden, which has recently become cool again since the country unleashed bands like the Hives in the wake of the new rock explosion triggered by the Strokes. Though pulled from the second string of major international acts, their peppy sound, reminiscent of Coldplay or Oasis, should prompt some vigorous lighter and glow-stick swaying.
For the real mosh pit action, though, people will have to wait for Jaurim, Korea's hardest-hitting rock act, to wrap up the festival in style. Unlike in previous years, concert-goers will be permitted to pitch tents on the Fulong Beach Park grounds for the duration of the festival. And as long as a typhoon doesn't blow around off the coast like it did last year during the festiva,l prompting the police to rope off the water, revelers will be allowed to cool off by swimming in the ocean, which is one of the main draws of the event in the first place.
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