Photo of Hong Kong Protests by Studio Incendo (CC BY 2.0)
Organizers of the Clockenflap music festival, which is Hong Kong’s largest, announced that they are canceling the event, citing the increase in the violence in the city because of the ongoing political protests.
The festival was to take place on November 22-24.
In conjunction with the announcement, the festival organizers issued the following statement: “Due to the escalation of the crisis this week, and therefore the uncertainty this creates for the coming weeks, Clockenflap 2019 will be canceled. Until this week we were fully committed to delivering the festival. Unfortunately the situation has now made this impossible.”
Established in 2005, Clockenflap has grown to be not only the largest music festival in Hong Kong but also one of the biggest throughout Asia. In addition to over 50 local acts, this year’s festival was to include the following performers:
- Mumford and Sons
- Halsey
- Lil Pump
- Bombay Bicycle Club
- David Boring
- Kevin Kaho Tsui
Clockenflap is not the first music festival in Hong Kong to be canceled because of the protests.
Last month, Rolling Loud Hong Kong also canceled for the very same reason. Other event cancellations have included the CineAsia film industry conference and trade show, the Asia Video Summit and the Hong Kong Tennis Open. The tennis event was scheduled to take place in Victoria Park, which has been one of the meeting points of the protests.
The protests began about 5 months ago, in response to a new law that would have given the mainland Chinese government the ability to extradite criminal suspects from the enclave, which has enjoyed great autonomy since being returned to China from the British a few decades earlier.
While the law was eventually withdrawn, the protests and ensuing violence have only risen. Recently, all schools in the city, including universities, have closed, and clashes between protesters and police have gotten even more intense.