‘This abnormal place’: Activist Cantopop star Denise Ho resorts to online gig, saying venues won’t accept bookings
Hong Kong Free Press
Pro-democracy Cantopop star Denise Ho has said she will perform an online gig this month having been unable to secure a live venue.
“Apart from the fact that it’s so difficult for me to do a ‘normal’ show in this abnormal place (I should say it’s impossible, I can’t book a show, I can’t go out of town for a tour)… I think this situation of being stripped down is probably the best time for me to learn how to be a singer again,” Ho said in a Facebook post to fans on Monday.
Police are currently in possession of the singer’s passport as she faces charges of sedition in connection with the 2021 Stand News trial. She was also arrested on charges of suspected “collusion with foreign powers” in 2022 relating to a legal fund for pro-democracy demonstrators.
Ho said she will perform via a livestream next Friday at 8pm with tickets available online: “Without the pyrotechnics, without the costumes, without the thousands and thousands of people in the venue and the audience, without the big band of a dozen or so, what’s left? It’s all about you and your story.”
In 2021, Ho was forced to cancel a live concert after the venue suddenly terminated her reservation agreement less than two weeks before the event was to take place. The Hong Kong Arts Centre informed the singer’s company of the cancellation in a letter citing “circumstances where public order or public safety would be endangered during the course of performance of hiring.”
Ho accused the venue of providing no evidence or explanation for the cancellation, despite several inquiries.
Venues close doors
Last week, a fundraising concert organised by the Hong Kong Journalists Association was forced to move online, after the live performance was axed due to an “irresistible force,” the press group said.
See also: Hong Kong’s drama groups struggle to set boundaries as performances are axed
A summit about the operations of independent media in Hong Kong was forced to go online in December last year following multiple venue cancellations. One venue told the event organiser that the conference was “unsuitable.” The organiser, the Culture & Media Education Foundation, told HKFP at the time that it believed the cancellation was “self-censorship.”
And Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy party has also struggled to find venues to host its events in recent years, with many refusing reservations or backing out at the eleventh hour. The Democratic Party had to call off a fundraising dinner last September, after two restaurants that were meant to host the event pulled out at the last minute.
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