Why do int’l music acts appear to be shunning Hong Kong?
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong is slowly coming back to life. The Covid restrictions are gone, tourists have started to trickle back in, the Rugby Sevens and Clockenflap have returned after a years-long absence, and gigantic inflatable ducks have again been spotted bobbing about in Victoria Harbour.
All positive signs, of course, that it’s becoming business as usual in “Asia’s world city”. But despite the authorities’ desperate efforts to convince everyone that Hong Kong is back, one prominent group doesn’t seem to have got the memo and appears to be giving the city a wide berth in 2023: western pop stars.
Of the five big international pop acts who are swinging through Asia this year – Taylor Swift, Coldplay, Harry Styles, Lewis Capaldi and Sam Smith – only one (Sam Smith) is appearing in Hong Kong. All five are performing in Asian centres such as Singapore (with Swift playing six concerts in that city and Coldplay three), Tokyo and Jakarta. Yet Hong Kong is conspicuous by its absence on the tour schedules.
Social media chatter has blamed everything from the national security law to the fact that Swift was born in the sensitive year of 1989, but the truth is far less exciting, according to industry insiders. They say the artists aren’t coming either because of a lack of suitable venues, or the fact that the tours were planned when Hong Kong still had Covid restrictions in place, making local dates impossible to commit to.
Swift and Coldplay have both previously performed at AsiaWorld-Arena (in 2011 and 2009 respectively), but their current tours have both been designed for stadiums only and require a stage that extends into the audience. For example, this explains why Coldplay’s sole Taiwan show is taking place in Kaohsiung (at the 55,000-capacity National Stadium) instead of Taipei, which lacks a large stadium for concerts.
Hong Kong’s biggest stadium is the 40,000-capacity Hong Kong Stadium, the home of the Rugby Sevens, but it has not held any pop concerts since the mid-1990s after surrounding residents complained about noise coming from shows by acts including Bon Jovi (1993) and Jean-Michel Jarre (1994). A proposed 1997 show by Michael Jackson famously failed to gain approval even after the organiser promised to provide audience members with gloves (of course) to muffle the sound of applause.
The insiders say Hong Kong will most likely be added to the international stadium tour calendar when the Kai Tak Sports Park and its 50,000-capacity stadium with a retractable roof is completed within the next 18 months.
As for Styles (who appeared at AsiaWorld-Arena in 2015 with his former boy band One Direction) and Capaldi, the tours were either planned when there was no end in sight for the city’s Covid restrictions or Hong Kong’s biggest concert venue (Hall One at AsiaWorld-Arena, with a capacity of 14,000) wasn’t considered big enough for the shows on these tours.
Don’t forget that Hong Kong’s final Covid restrictions were only lifted around four months ago. Logistical feasibility is one of the major factors considered when planning a tour schedule and logistics companies require a lead time of up to six months to route an artist’s cargo. When these tours were being finalised, Hong Kong still had social distancing measures and mask mandates in place, so it’s understandable why the labels didn’t want to take a gamble on local dates.
So why are we getting big K-pop acts like Blackpink and Aespa? One insider said the answer was simple: their management had decided that the venues on offer were suitable for those concerts. Blackpink, for example, staged three sold-out shows at AsiaWorld-Arena earlier this year, performing to a total 42,000 people.
But even many K-pop artists are skipping Hong Kong too, with acts such as The Boyz, Woodz, Taeyon and Super Junior D&E leaving the city off their 2023 Asian tour schedules.
Any sad Swifties or Directioners pining for Styles can console themselves with the fact that we all felt this way for decades when big international acts rarely visited Hong Kong. The city only became a fixture on the global touring circuit after digital distribution and streaming upended the music industry, which was forced to explore live concerts in less developed markets. And Hong Kong will likely reclaim its place on the touring circuit before you know it.
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