“That’s my first time coming to perform in Hong Kong. Hopefully there’ll be more.”
Caroline Polachek, YOASOBI, IDLES, Homeshake, and Swae Lee all pronounced this sentence in one way or another during their sets at Hong Kong’s largest music festival, Clockenflap, during the first weekend of December. But it’s not easy booking that many international artists for the first time. If Japan, South Korea, and now Thailand have established themselves as leaders of the Asian music industry, Hong Kong has very much been left in a gray era.
The Special Administrative Region, formed in 1997, inherited a rich cultural scene with Wong Kar-wai’s movies and Canto-pop’s regional impact. But creativity is not always encouraged in a city where the cost of living is so high and where space is so expensive. Protests and unrest in 2019, followed by drastic pandemic restrictions imposed by the government, have tamped down the city’s music scene for what felt like an eternity.
Photo courtesy of Clockenflap
Clockenflap returned in 2023 with two hotly-anticipated festivals, the first in March and the second from December 1st through 3rd. The three day passes of Clockenflap’s December’s edition sold out weeks before the announcement of the full line up.
The opening Friday sets balanced thrilling international acts, regional gems and the thriving local scene all together. Despite their global achievements, Pulp, Caroline Polachek, and IDLES did not garner as much excitement as Chinese rapper Lexie Liu or Taiwanese indie-rock band No Party For Cao Dong. The most memorable moments of this first night included Liu’s blistering performance, one of the most hypnotizing sets of the festival. Mixing Buddhist mantra, hip-hop, and electronic music, she also performed her latest album, as well as “Delulu,” a Gen Z anthem, for the first time live.
UK post-punk heroes IDLES still left a mark on festival goers. Prior to jumping on stage, the Bristol band told Consequence that “playing in Hong Kong, in front of an audience that we’ve never seen before, is a gift” — a precious one, given that the concert was the very first of their 2024 world tour. Guitarist Mark Bowen was wearing one of his iconic dresses— yellow — and a few mosh pits started, electrified by the band’s energy. But it wasn’t without difficulty, as YOASOBI’s fans were already trying to secure a place for the duo’s performance, scheduled for two hours laters.
IDLES, photo courtesy of Clockenflap
