Taipei’s indie rock scene is flocking to the mountains tomorrow for A Rockable Day, a day-long festival featuring around 30 performers on five different stages.
It ain’t exactly Fuji Rock, but Rockable’s scenic nature locale sounds novel for a music festival — it takes place at Wenshan Farms (文山農場), a tea farm near Xindian (新店).
The line-up is loaded with a who’s who of Taiwanese indie bands. Echo (回聲樂團) and 1976 will surely draw their respective fans, while post-rockers Aphasia (阿飛西雅), garage rock favorites 88 Balaz (88顆芭樂籽), jazz-pop artist Paige Su (蘇珮卿) and Aboriginal singer-songwriter Panai (巴奈) round out a relatively diverse roster of performers. There will be a stage devoted to ukulele enthusiasts, with free classes throughout the day for those interested in learning the instrument.
Courtesy of A Rockable Day
Rockable is a DIY venture run by Cookie Chang (張嘉桁) and Wei Jun (魏駿) of the Taipei alt-rock band Bearbabes (熊寶貝樂團, which also enjoys a loyal following of its own).
Chang and Wei are valiantly taking on the challenge of holding a rock festival with limited resources. They have no sponsorship, but the two sound like they’re well-organized, and are backed by a sizable team of over 50 volunteers. Wei says the performers have generously agreed to play knowing that most of the ticket costs will go to covering the venue rental.
For Chang, the main appeal of A Rockable Day is simple: bands and their fans can get out of the city and have a “relaxing” time in the seclusion of nature.
Courtesy of A Rockable Day
“When you walk around, you feel like you’re so far from Taipei,” she told Live Wire in an interview earlier this week. And more importantly, getting there isn’t hard: the farm is a 15 to 20-minute bus ride from Xindian MRT Station (新店捷運站).
Unfortunately for those hoping to make a weekend out of it, camping won’t be allowed as the organizers only have use of the venue from morning to evening. The event is also a test of sorts for Wenshan Farms, which is more accustomed to holding tea-picking and tasting tours for tea aficionados than hosting a bunch of indie rock bands.
Chang and Wei are naturally hoping Rockable goes smoothly to ensure future opportunities for the festival at Wenshan Farms. To this end, they’re encouraging festival-goers to bring their own mugs and cups to minimize trash, not to mention to be mindful of and “cherish” the natural surroundings.
Courtesy of A Rockable Day
In addition to the music on five stages, there will be booths selling food and goods. The staff from Witch House (女巫店) will be selling beverages and barbecue and Kafka on The Shore (海邊的卡夫卡) will run an on-site cafe, while a few independent vendors will offer standard night market fare such as fried chicken and sausages. The performing bands will also run their own booths, where they can sell merchandise and hang out with fans. And Taiwanese tea enthusiasts are in luck: festival-goers will also be able to take free tours of the tea farms and can learn to how to pick tea leaves.
This being the great outdoors in Taiwan, attendees should make sure to bring mosquito spray and a good attitude if it rains. Rockable’s Web site also requests that festival-goers bring rain jackets instead of umbrellas, to avoid accidentally poking fellow audience members when watching the bands.
More details on the festival are available at rockable.com.tw, which is in Chinese only. See the side box for a roster of bands. Free shuttle buses run to the site (see below for details).
Courtesy of A Rockable Day
■ A Rockable Day, tomorrow from 10:30am to 10pm at Wenshan Farms (文山農場), located at 100 Huzinei Rd, Xindian District, New Taipei City (新北市新店區湖子內路100號). Tickets are NT$850 in advance and NT$1,200 at the door, available through books.com.tw and iBon kiosks at 7-Eleven stores, or at the door. Free shuttles run in the morning and evening from Xindian MRT. From 9:30 to 12:30pm every 10-15 minutes, and every 3 to 5 minutes in the evening. The site can also be accessed via bus 849.
If A Rockable Day doesn’t wear you out, you can finish off the night with rock, funk and reggae at the Wall (這牆) tomorrow night. Expat group High Tide headlines an evening billed as “Summertime Simmer Down.” Monkey Pilot (猴子飛行員) and Funky Brothers are also performing, while DJs Marcus Aurelius and Shorty round out the lineup to ensure that the night is a bona fide party.
■ 10pm Saturday at The Wall, B1, 200, Roosevelt Rd, Sec 4, Taipei (台北市羅斯福路四段200號B1). Admission is NT$600
Fans of the movie This Is Spinal Tap (how could anyone not love this movie) will want to catch Anvil, whose is pretty much Spinal Tap in real life. See page 12 of yesterday’s Taipei Times for an interview with this legendary Toronto heavy metal band, which headlines Celebration Canada (which used to called Canada Day) on Sunday.
■ 8pm on Sunday at Legacy Taipei, Huashan 1914 Creative Park (華山1914), Center Five Hall (中五館), 1, Bade Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市八德路一段1號). Admission is NT$1,200, tickets available at www.walkieticket.com.
And if you’re looking for a satisfying pop-punk mosh, tonight Kaohsiung group Fire EX (滅火器) will be in Taipei for a gig at the Wall.
■ 10pm Saturday at The Wall, B1, 200, Roosevelt Rd, Sec 4, Taipei (台北市羅斯福路四段200號B1). Admission is NT$400
A Rockable Day Schedule:
Conviction Stage (信念舞台)
● 10:30am Forests (森林)
● 12pm U.TA (屋塔)
● 1:30pm Easy
● 3pm Come on! Bay Bay! (來吧!焙焙!)
● 4:30pm Aphasia (阿飛西雅)
● 6pm 88 Balaz (88顆芭樂籽)
● 7:30pm Echo (回聲樂團)
Hope Stage (希望舞台)
● 10:30am Zulin Wu (吳志寧)
● 12pm Popcorn (爆米花)
● 1:30pm Wang Yu-jun (王榆鈞)
● 3pm My 8 Day Weekend (週休八日)
● 4:30pm Paige Su (蘇珮卿)
● 6pm Finn
● 7:30pm Panai (巴奈)
Love Stage (愛舞台)
● 11:15am Lily et Coco
● 12:45pm Hush!
● 2:15pm PUMPKINney Fan Club
(南瓜妮歌迷俱樂部)
● 3:45pm Orangegrass
● 5:15pm We Save Strawberries
● 6:45pm Bearbabes
● 8:15pm 1976
UKE Stage
● 11:15am Pia
● 12pm Class with “Neo”
● 12:45 Neo
● 2:15pm Driftwood (漂流木樂團)
● 3pm Summer Days Uke (夏日烏克)
● 3:30pm Brian Lu (呂秉田)
Field Shock (acoustic stage)
● 11am Gayyung (假勇)
● 12pm Crispy
● 2pm Light Engine (光引擎)
● 3pm Rose and Beef (??)
● 5pm Yi-cheng, Yi-ching (依錚依靜)
● 6pm X.O.X.O.
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s