This year’s Hohaiyan Gongliao Rock Festival is back on after the New Taipei City Government late on Thursday made a policy U-turn on an earlier decision to cancel the event.
In a statement, the city’s Department of Tourism said the rock festival at Fulong Beach (福隆海灘) is to be held concurrently with the River and Ocean Musical Festival over three consecutive weekends in August.
The reversal comes after the tourism department’s earlier announcement, that it was scrapping the Hohaiyan Gongliao Rock Festival and replacing it with four weeks of beach and mountain activities due to a lack of space was panned by music fans.
Photo: Yu Chao-fu, Taipei Times
The decision sparked outrage and complaints by music fans, local residents and elected representatives, prompting the department to reverse the decision 48 hours later.
Residents and local politicians also condemned the city government over the opaque process and lack of consultation in making the decision. They questioned the motive behind the reversal, asking if it was a trick to lure young people, as New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) is widely expected to run in next year’s presidential election.
“The Hohaiyan Rock Festival is a well-known brand with more than two decades of history. It has turned many of Taiwan’s unknown bands into headline acts, which is good for promoting music and tourism in the city,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) New Taipei City Councilor Chiu Ting-wei (邱婷蔚) said.
DPP Councilor Lee Yu-dien (李余典) said Hou is deceiving the public by claiming that he has reinstated the Gongliao festival when in reality it has been scaled back, with the main themes changed and the event itself becoming a small feature of the River and Ocean Music Festival.
“When the sudden decision was met with a public outcry, [city authorities] said it would still be held, which indicates that the decision was made haphazardly, without consultation,” DPP Legislator Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) said. “The new version is lacking in indie music spirit and has no links to local residents’ will to safeguard the beach and the marine environment.”
The Hohaiyan festival is usually held each summer for two to three days. Since its launch in 2000, it has featured popular Taiwanese musicians such as Mayday and pop singer A-mei (張惠妹), as well as performers from elsewhere in Asia and from Europe and North America.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS