Formoz Festival organizers are putting the final touches to this year's three-day event which should be bigger and better than ever. The Taiwan Rock Alliance (TRA) has confirmed appearances by Grammy nominated producer DJ Moby and alt-rock songstress Lisa Loeb as the main highlights of the Formoz Festival.
Along with the two hugely popular US performances, four Japanese acts have also been confirmed, comedic pop and rock combo Kishidan, punk rockers The Vickers and Last Target plus downbeat indie act Rolly Polly Rag Bear.
The only local act to have been confirmed to date is the three-piece band, Tizzy Bac. The full roster of local bands is due to be confirmed next week, but organizers predict that there will be performances by at least 100 bands over the three-day festival period.
The Formoz Festival will take place at the Taipei Children's Recreation Center in Yuanshan Park from July 29 to July 31 from 5pm until 11:30pm. As in previous years Formoz will feature four stages -- Wood, Wind, Fire and Mountain -- an area for electronica music, an outdoor movie screen and a wrestling ring.
Last year's three-day event attracted about 50,000 people and although tickets are more expensive this year, organizers expect a bigger turnout because of the inclusion of Moby in the line-up.
Advance three-day passes cost NT$1,200 while those purchased at the door during the festival will cost NT$1,500. Daily passes will once again be available and cost NT$900.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF TRA
This year TRA will be closely monitoring tickets sales as well as on-site entry and exit points due to problems from gatecrashers.
"We've had to go all-out to enforce the ticketing regulations this year simply because of the cost of bringing Moby to Taiwan," TRA's Anita Chia said. "In previous years large numbers of people have managed to get in for free because ticketing was a bit lax. We'll be trying to ensure that nobody gets in for free this year, as we'd like to be able to cover our costs."
IDs will for the first time be checked at the gates to ensure that names correspond to those on the tickets before wrist bands are allocated and some form of identification must be carried at all times for the duration of the three-day event. Festival-goers who lose their wrist bands will not be guaranteed re-entry unless they produce a ticket stub and ID with the corresponding personal information.
Festival Facts:
Formoz Festival 2005 ticketing agents: Advance three-day passes for the event cost NT$1,200 and are currently available at the following locations.
All branches of Eslite and Kingstone bookstores nationwide
White Wabbit Records 200, Roosevelt Rd, Sec 4, Taipei (02) 8935 1454
Wanna Play 200, Roosevelt Rd, Sec 4, Taipei (02) 2931 1031
IN-PO Records 3F, 16, Ln 316, Roosevelt Rd, Sec 3 (02) 2365-7287
Nine-Five Music Store 11, Ln 20, Hankou Rd, Sec 2, Taipei (02) 2312 2251
Tickets are also available online from the Chiang Kai-shek Cultural Center's ticket office at www.artsticket.com.tw
Towering high above Taiwan’s capital city at 508 meters, Taipei 101 dominates the skyline. The earthquake-proof skyscraper of steel and glass has captured the imagination of professional rock climber Alex Honnold for more than a decade. Tomorrow morning, he will climb it in his signature free solo style — without ropes or protective equipment. And Netflix will broadcast it — live. The event’s announcement has drawn both excitement and trepidation, as well as some concerns over the ethical implications of attempting such a high-risk endeavor on live broadcast. Many have questioned Honnold’s desire to continues his free-solo climbs now that he’s a
As Taiwan’s second most populous city, Taichung looms large in the electoral map. Taiwanese political commentators describe it — along with neighboring Changhua County — as Taiwan’s “swing states” (搖擺州), which is a curious direct borrowing from American election terminology. In the early post-Martial Law era, Taichung was referred to as a “desert of democracy” because while the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was winning elections in the north and south, Taichung remained staunchly loyal to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). That changed over time, but in both Changhua and Taichung, the DPP still suffers from a “one-term curse,” with the
Lines between cop and criminal get murky in Joe Carnahan’s The Rip, a crime thriller set across one foggy Miami night, starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Damon and Affleck, of course, are so closely associated with Boston — most recently they produced the 2024 heist movie The Instigators there — that a detour to South Florida puts them, a little awkwardly, in an entirely different movie landscape. This is Miami Vice territory or Elmore Leonard Land, not Southie or The Town. In The Rip, they play Miami narcotics officers who come upon a cartel stash house that Lt. Dane Dumars (Damon)
Today Taiwanese accept as legitimate government control of many aspects of land use. That legitimacy hides in plain sight the way the system of authoritarian land grabs that favored big firms in the developmentalist era has given way to a government land grab system that favors big developers in the modern democratic era. Articles 142 and 143 of the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution form the basis of that control. They incorporate the thinking of Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) in considering the problems of land in China. Article 143 states: “All land within the territory of the Republic of China shall
RSS