Summer’s here, and the music festivals are coming — only not so much in Taiwan. Huge festivals in Japan and Korea will score many of the world’s top acts, and a few Taiwanese bands will even be playing at them. But despite the Taiwanese government allocating NT$26.2 billion to develop cultural and creative industries from 2009 to 2014, the nation’s music festivals are sputtering. Oh, right. That initiative ignored music festivals completely.
For comparison’s sake, here’s what’s going on elsewhere in Asia. In Japan, Fuji Rock (July 24 to July 26) brings headliners Foo Fighters, Muse, Motorhead, Deadmau5 and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, while Summer Sonic (Aug. 7 to Aug. 9) will be banging it with Pharrell Williams and the Chemical Brothers. Taipei can probably expect a couple of one-off gigs by mid-tier acts at The Wall or Legacy, but there will be no festivals to speak of.
According to sources at Fuji Rock, around 500 Taiwanese music fans have already bought tickets for the festival, and organizers are hoping for over 1,000. This is pretty significant, given that the costs of visiting Fuji Rock from Taiwan are at least NT$30,000 per person, and on that budget you will still be sleeping in a tent. Ironically, when a Taiwanese festival tries to charge more than one-tenth that amount, nobody goes and fans complain that the tickets are too expensive.
Photo Courtesy of Chthonic
Speaking of Fuji Rock, major congratulations are in order to Taiwanese shoegaze group Manic Sheep, which last year became the first ever non-Japanese group to win Fuji Rock’s rookie band competition. Their winning performance at the 2014 Fuji Rock Rookie-a-Go-Go stage was absolutely jam packed, and immediately afterward several music writer friends, none of whom had ever heard of the band, remarked to me that they were “awesome.” This year, Manic Sheep will return to Japan to play on one of Fuji Rock’s main stages. Taiwanese black metal band Chthonic will also return to Fuji Rock for at least the third time. Their last appearance in 2012 featured a Japanese pro wrestler on stage as a guest vocalist, thrashing out for a crowd of 10,000. This time, they are playing a special acoustic set.
Summer Sonic, held in Chiba, usually has a couple Taiwanese bands as part of its “Asia Calling” section on the Island Stage. This year, they’ve invited the Taichung metal band, Flesh Juicer (血肉果汁機), known for wearing rubber pig-head masks on stage, and rockers Sorry Youth (拍謝少年).
In case you are mulling over an expensive rock ‘n’ roll summer vacation to Japan, it’s worth bearing in mind that South Korean festivals offer a relative bargain. A full pass to either Fuji Rock or Summer Sonic will cost you the equivalent of around NT$10,000. Korea’s Ansam Valley Festival — held the same three days as Fuji Rock — actually combines headliners from both Japanese festivals (Foo Fighers, Chemical Brothers, Deadmau5 and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds) for a significantly cheaper price of around NT$7,000. There’s also the Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival (Aug. 7 to Aug. 9), which will bring The Scorpions, The Prodigy and Mew, with tickets at only NT$5,200. Kimchi, anyone?
Photo Courtesy of Heart Town Festival
So what’s happening in Taiwan?
The government will spend its money inviting foreign experts to the Golden Melody Awards and a related music conference (June 24 to June 26). They are still betting the cultural nest egg on Mandopop while wondering why Taiwan is so much less cool than Korea.
There will be at least one local festival worth going to. Last summer’s inaugural Heart Town Festival (山海屯音樂節) in Taichung was a fantastic weekend of metal and other varieties of loud music. This year, it returns Aug. 7 to Aug. 9 with a similarly strong lineup. Headliners are The Used (US) and Young Guns (UK), supported by a gift basket of Japan’s top metal and thrash acts, including Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, coldrain, Her Name in Blood and the Game Shop, as well as top Taiwanese bands Chthonic, LTK Commune (濁水溪公社), OVDS and many more. A weekend pass is NT$2,500.
Photo Courtesy of Manic Sheep
The Ho-Hai-Yan Gongliao Rock Festival (貢寮國際海洋音樂祭), which claims to be Taiwan’s biggest music festival with 870,000 attendees last year (this statistic is most certainly false, but some media did actually report this number and there’s nothing reliable to go by), will “probably” take place for the 16th year in mid-July. The festival is free, taking place on the beach of Gongliao Township in northern Taiwan, and it usually, at the very last minute, announces a few international bands in its lineup. The event is sponsored by the New Taipei City government.
The problem is that with just six weeks to go, there is still no information about the festival. Not even a date. A message on Ho-Hai-Yan’s official Web site reads that the festival “is scheduled for mid-July. The actual dates are yet to be announced. Everyone get excited for this coming event!”
What can one infer from this? Maybe it’s because New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) is too busy not running for president of Taiwan. If that’s not the case, then your guess is as good as mine.
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