Take a look outside and you'll notice that the days are getting longer, the nip is fading from the air and the animals in the park are starting to behave oddly. Spring is definitely in the air and that means it will soon be time for the annual exodus of young people from the northern cities to greet the season's first rays in Kenting for the spring-break weekend of revelry.
To give credit where credit is due, spring celebrations by the beach began with Spring Scream, which is now in its 11th year -- an impressive number of years for any annual event, especially one that was started in bare-bones fashion by two expats with neither deep pockets nor a thick black book of guanxi.
In that time Spring Scream has become probably the most anticipated live-music festival of the year, with 200 bands on four stages this year, art and film exhibition spaces and a friendly communal vibe that is totally unsullied by obnoxious corporate sponsors that you would expect to see at a similarly scaled event abroad.
With the reputation that it's developed, even big-name acts travel all the way to Kenting to play for free, and this year will be no exception. According to co-organizer Jimi Moe, the festival has already confirmed the following bands as headliners for the festival this year: Chairman, Backquarter, Clippers, Shino (
Advance tickets are on sale now for NT$1,600, which saves you NT$400 on the door price and gets you entry to all of the festival's five days from April 1 to April 5, as well as a camping pass at the Liou Fu Ranch where it takes place and a pack of souvenirs. Tickets are also now on sale for the buses traveling from Taipei and Taichung to Kenting on March 30, March 31 and April 1, and back from Kenting to Taipei and Taichung from April 3 to April 5. You can only buy a bus ticket (NT$600 to NT$750, depending on the day and route) with a 5-day festival ticket. For information on sales points for all tickets, check www.springscream.com.
The dance parties that have sprung up in Kenting on the same weekend as Spring Scream over the past few years have gained a momentum all their own and this year they promise to be back again in force.
Moonlight Production looks to have arranged the largest of these once again with a three-day event from April 1 to April 3 in the fields behind the town. This year they've set up two dance areas and brought in two big-name acts -- Marco V from Holland, who will play Saturday night, and Brian McGuire from LA who will play on Sunday. The rest of the 35-DJ lineup is an assembly of the most popular DJs in Taiwan and on hand will also be everyone's favorite leather-clad S&M party freak Orange Boy and his crew. For the long list of places to buy advance tickets, check www.monlight-production.com.tw.
The other major party of the weekend confirmed so far, and the only one on a beach, will be in Nanwan, a few kilometers north of Kenting. Bands will be playing in the early evening from April 1 to April 3, followed by DJs spinning until the sun rises. Day passes to the party will cost NT$600.
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