Department of Cultural Affairs

By Joujouson
Staff Writer

“Taipei Music Festival 2014” is co-hosted by Taipei City Government and Ministry of Culture, which the press conference was holding on August 27th in advance of the festival starts. The festival ambassador Crowd Lu, Deputy Director General of Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development Wang Chih-chen and Secretary General of Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government Li Lih-chu have announced the Taipei Music Festival 2014, which will last for 3 months, kicked off.

Many of the festival representatives, including “Echo”, “Come on! Bay Bay!”, “The Murky Crows” and “Taiwan Soul Band” had also attended the activity to show their support for Taipei Music Festival 2014. The head event “ROCKA PUNKA: Street Rock Music Festival” of this year’s pop music festival will run at Yuanshan Plaza in Taipei Expo Park on August 30th and 31st.  Between August and October, Taipei will become a city full of pop music and energy waiting for your visit! 

There are two main events of Taipei Music Festival 2014. One is “ROCKA PUNKA: Street Rock Music Festival”, and another is “Forest Playground”. In addition, music events cooperating with other groups such as “Galaxy Music Gathering”,“SKM Unplugged Season” and“Taipei Spring Wave Music and Art Festival”will also be presented from August to October.  Many indie bands and local musical shows will at the same time perform in some famous live houses in Taipei and they are waiting for local people or those who travelling all the way to Taipei to experience and explore!

This is the second year for Taipei City Government holding the Taipei Music Festival. “Because of the successful experience of first annual festival, it has become the incentive for holding the festival continuously. Furthermore, we wish that more pop musicians with potential can therefore be discovered through this activity.” said Secretary General of Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government Li Lih-chu. The contents this year are more extensive than last year that the overall visual design is arranged by Xiao Qing-Yang, the first Chinese recording designer who was nominated for Grammy’s Best Recording Package. The key meaning of the visual design of Taipei Pop Music Festival 2014 is to spread friendly and magnanimous feelings of music, and bring happiness and joy to everyone who participate in this great ceremony.

Taiwan has always being the leader of the Chinese original pop music that lots of the classical Chinese pop music have been sung among the Chinese-speaking world. The Chinese music fans whether from South Eastern Asia or mainland China are all enthusing about the pop music produced in Taiwan. In order to keep Taiwan’s advantages in culture and creative industry and to encourage the outstanding musicians to produce more powerful works, Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government had making huge efforts on preparing Taipei Pop Music Festival which finally came into being last year. “Thanks for Ministry of Culture spares no efforts to support the development of music industry of Taipei and gives us a big hand on the budget. Taipei Pop Music Festival is now stepping into the second year and the building of “Taipei Pop Music Centre” is under constructing as well. ” said Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government. And now Taipei still stays ahead of the Chinese pop music industry.

The first event of this year’s Taipei Pop Music Festival, ROCKA PUNKA: Street Rock Music Festival, will run at Yuanshan Plaza in Taipei Expo Park on August 30th and 31st.  There will be music, market and delicious food at the festival, and the invited bands from Taiwan, Japan, China and Hong Kong will perform on a distinctive containers!
Bands from Taiwan: Echo/ Monkey Pilots/Joanna Wang & The Weird Uncles/Wong Fu
Bands from Japan: HARUKATOMIYUKI/OKAN
Bands from China: Top Floor Circus/The Big Wave
Bands from Hong Kong: Chochukmo/ Chock Ma

A music feast will be holding at Daan Forest Park’s outdoor music stage which is near the entrance of Xinsheng South Rd. on September 6th and 7th. The activity includes music, movies and lectures that would bring fans a relax weekend. For your reference, the performance groups of the activity are WAWA, Cosmospeople, Come On!Bay Bay!, Soft Lipa, Debbie Hsiao and Bear Babies. In addition,“Galaxy Music Gathering” had just finished at SKM Xinyi Shangti Square on August 24th , people who are fond of rock music can still catch up the final of “SKM Unplugged Season” at the same place on August 31st. The activity’s spokesman Crowd Lu will show up to be the judge and cream off the good voices of Taiwan.
The last but not least event of Taipei Pop Music Festival “Taipei Spring Wave Music and Art Festival” will bring the best part of the festival that the famous singers such as JJ Lin, Ding Dong, Bii, Hebe and Matilda Tao will perform at the same stage! The activity will be held at Dajia Riverside Park on October 10th and 11th. 

Besides the dynamic major events, “Pop Up City Voice Workshop” will have some static activities including two lectures, two voice collection classes and four achievement exhibitions between September 22nd and October 26th. Six lecturers and young composers will share their experiences of collecting voices in the city and how they put the voices that are collected from the corners of Taipei City in theirs musical works. 

Moreover, to win the autographed photos of popular bands or musicians and the limited edition Taipei Music Festival towels, please check out the official website and the Facebook fan page more often. The promotion terms and conditions will be announced in the very near future.
For further information please visit “Colorful Taipei” APP.