The 14th Gongliao Hohaiyan Rock Festival will kick off July 10, with bands May Day and Sodagreen performing the opening and closing sets, respectively, New Taipei City Mayor Eric Liluan Chu said at a media conference June 18.
“We hope to attract one million visitors this year,” Chu said, adding that the five-day festival drew almost 870,000 spectators in 2012, generating NT$1.04 billion (US$347 million) in revenue. He said large numbers from the Chinese speaking community and other nations are expected to swell the international crowd, helping make the festival a huge success.
Chu’s comments came as he announced the 10 finalists for the Hohaiyan Indie Music Awards. He said that this year’s festival would include a wide range of overseas and local talent.
This year’s bash will have five themes, one for each day, a Tourism Bureau official said, featuring “Rocking the global village”, “Famous Taiwan rock”, “Girl power 2.0”, “Hohaiyan Indie Music Awards” and “Hit it! My sea festival.” Famous groups from countries such as Australia, Japan, Russia and the U.S. are scheduled to appear, along with popular local bands such as The Chairman, io and Echo.
The live playoff by the Hohaiyan Indie Music Award finalists should prove a major draw, the bureau official said. A total of 234 entrants had been whittled down to the final 10 after three tough rounds of preliminaries.
The festival will be staged at Fulong beach in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District. (SDH)
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