There will not be a 12th Megaport Festival next year, event organizers said on Wednesday, while sources said that the popular music festival was canceled after facing pressure from the administration of Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜).
Organizers said in a statement that it had been feeling growing pressure since the start of this year and they had been asked to submit information on past events.
The festival has become a source of criticism at the Kaohsiung City Council and it is obvious that Han is not interested in supporting it, they said.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
This has consistently stalled progress on organizing next year’s event, which has met with many unexpected obstacles and must be canceled, they said.
The festival, cofounded by metal band Chthonic frontman Freddy Lim (林昶佐), now an independent legislator, is frequently headlined by rock band Fire EX, which promotes Taiwanese independence.
Sources said that Han’s administration has launched a sweeping investigation into alleged illegalities by his predecessor, Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Chu (陳菊), while financing for the past 11 Megaport festivals is among the items being scrutinized by Kaohsiung ethics officials.
The independent and free spirit that Megaport embodies will continue to live on in the hearts of everyone, organizers said.
Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) yesterday said that Tainan would welcome the festival, but organizers declined, saying that they had no plans to hold the festival next year.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that she hoped that the Kaohsiung City Government would cherish and continue to hold the festival.
Additional reporting by Yang Hsin-han and Chiu Shu-yu
A DECADE’S WORK: The two-volume, 1,400-page lexicon has collected more than 20,000 words and phrases, and is expected to help people learning the Liu Dui dialect The Liu Dui Culture Research Association on Saturday unveiled the nation’s first domestically compiled lexicon of Hakka-language words in the Liu Dui dialect, an effort that took a decade of work and cost about NT$7 million (US$233,085 at the current exchange rate). The two-volume, 1,400-page lexicon collected more than 20,000 phrases and words, and is estimated to be of great value in helping people learn the Liu Dui dialect and culture, the association said. It could also become a reference book for teachers, the association added. The lexicon collected phrases and common words used in daily speech, as well as local sayings, phrases
EXPANSION: The transportation ministry is to subsidize Taipei and Kaohsiung’s purchase of 63 multipurpose taxis, as well as the payment of incentives for drivers The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is appropriating nearly NT$60 million (US$2 million) to subsidize plans by the Taipei City Government and the Kaohsiung City Government to expand their multipurpose taxi fleets, it said over the weekend. The ministry said that it has since 2013 subsidized the multipurpose taxi service nationwide, as it has become a way for disabled people to travel. The nation has 980 multipurpose taxis, including 301 in Taipei and 272 in Kaohsiung, ministry statistics showed. Last year, the service was accessed more than 200,000 times in Taipei and 460,000 times in Kaohsiung, which the ministry said shows
The One Bear Museum in Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), a teddy bear museum once touted by the county government as a “luminous pearl” along Provincial Highway No. 13, is facing possible closure. The museum’s building, which was provided by the county government, has a serious water leakage problem and lacks a parking lot for buses to bring in tour groups, Hsinchu County Councilor Lo Shih-shi (羅仕琦) said on Saturday. The county government should step in to rescue the museum, or the negative reviews about the museum on the Internet might affect visitors’ impression of the township and the county, he said. The
‘NATIONAL SECURITY PROBLEM’: Two DPP legislators said the government needs to help public agencies replace Chinese equipment and pass legislation banning their use More than 200 government entities are together using 1,108 telecommunications devices from Chinese brands, posing a cybersecurity risk, a government report showed. At the suggestion of the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee last year, the Executive Yuan investigated 7,704 public institutions to see whether they were using or had procured telecoms equipment manufactured by Chinese companies. They found that as of April 13, of the 3,837 public institutions that responded to their requests, 228 said they had been using equipment made by Chinese brands, including mobile phones, video cameras, drones and other Internet-related devices. The report highlighted products from seven brands considered to
RSS