Live music returns to Hong Kong in September with a day-long concert by local acts
- Hip-hop acts MC Yan, Novel Fergus, and Triple G and singer-songwriters Anna Hisbbur and Cehryl are among the acts performing in the 8-hour event
- The Long Time No See concert at MacPherson Stadium in Mong Kok on September 18 is promoted by the organisers of the Clockenflap festival and Sonar Hong Kong
Whisper it lest you jinx it, but live music is back. In Hong Kong! OK, so it’s live music with social distancing restrictions and no eating or drinking, but still, let us just repeat that for you: live music is back!
It’s been gradually seeping back for a while, in the form of the odd gig here or there, but it returns with a bang on September 18, in the form of Long Time No See (an expression calqued from Chinese, linguistics fans), a day-long concert at MacPherson Stadium in Mong Kok featuring an exclusively home-grown line-up of more than 10 acts.
“The live-music industry has just been devastated, for obvious reasons,” says Magnetic Asia’s head of music, Justin Sweeting. “Not only has it been completely crushed, but the nature of it means that it’s going to be one of the last to recover. We’re splitting the profits with the artists because it’s the right thing to do.”
There is, of course, an element of making a virtue out of necessity in the entirely local bill, but Clockenflap’s representation of local musicians has been growing over the years, and Magnetic Asia music director Ivy Yuen, the main organiser of the line-up, says that this kind of event is something the company has been planning for a while.