In September, let’s turn Taipei upside down with music! Mayor Chiang: 2024 TRENDY TAIPEI is Launched! 100 concerts, international forum, keynote speeches

Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-An and Tsai Shi-Ping, Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government, attended a press launch at Taipei Music Center (TMC), during which an introductory video of the 2024 TRENDY TAIPEI festival was shown and highlights of the program announced.

During the press conference, groups -- Wendy Wander from Taiwan and Billyrrom from Japan, both part of the festival’s JAM JAM ASIA series -- showcased a fascinating transnational music collaboration as distinguished guests joined Kay Huang, chairperson of TMC, in a ceremony to officially launch the festival.

13 brilliant events connect concerts, business forum and local music venuesTRENDY TAIPEI, scheduled to run from September 2 to 8, consists of 13 events based on the two core concepts of “conference” and “festival” and the main themes of “concert economy, business forum and city action”. While most events will take place at TMC , other activities will be held at local music venues with the purpose of both promoting industrial development and building a new brand for Taipei City. Each of the colors chosen for the festival logo has a special meaning: red for discharge, or a high degree of zeal and passion, and blue to signify charge, or being stable and reserved. The two colors convey what TRENDY TAIPEI advocates, which is vitality, innovation and the spirit of being trendy; they are juxtaposed to form a streamlined character “北”, an abbreviation for Taipei in Chinese.

Speaking at the press conference, Mayor Chiang said that TRENDY TAIPEI will be a platform for innovative technologies and the creative industry. It is hoped that the city can be injected with new vitality through the merger and interaction of different trendy cultures. With 2024 TRENDY TAIPEI being the festival premiere, the city government will continue to promote policies to support the development of new technologies, startups and businesses related to arts and culture video and audio content industry, with the aim of making Taipei a model city where both culture and economy thrive.

At the press conference, Commissioner Tsai also listed the highlights of 2024 TRENDY TAIPEI, from “discharge and play music, creative crossovers to charge and learn and innovative technologies”, 13 brilliant events that will combine with JAM JAM ASIA, Taipei Music Non-stop, the Taipei Jazz Festival and a city show, with various music genres and types of live performance by musicians and music groups from both Taiwan and abroad. For the business forum, several thousand influential figures in the fields of technology, startups and arts audio and video content have been invited from around the world to discuss new trends in culture-related businesses and visions for future developments.

In addition, working with the Taiwan Live Music Industry Association and local music venues, bands and composers of various music styles will be invited to perform at venues around the city as part of the TRENDY TAIPEI LIVE program. This example of collaboration between public and private sectors will create TRENDY TAIPEI LIVE Night that will send music through the night throughout the city to promote the development of Taiwan’s music industry.

TAIPEI MUSIC EXPO builds a platform for exchange for major music festivals, record companies and agencies

TMC Chairperson Huang and CEO Eric Liang introduced two major events of the festival which it has organized: TAIPEI MUSIC EXPO and JAM JAM ASIA concert. The first post-COVID 19 expo held in Taiwan catering to the practical needs of the country’s pop music industry, TAIPEI MUSIC EXPO will feature close interaction and match-making between business and fan economy. On September 7 and 8, representatives of 20 music festivals in Taiwan, 44 domestic and international record companies and music agencies will operate booths. At the same time, 25 international music curators and program buyers from 12 countries have been invited to come to Taiwan for a six-day match-making visit. The purpose is to form a B2B2C model of exchange through business exhibitions, interaction and match-making, stage for new talent, international forum and fan economy so that foreign buyers can know more about the diverse features of Taiwan’s pop music through experiencing music performance and exchange and interaction, helping promote regional cooperation so that an international cross-discipline music festival exclusive to Taipei can be established.

JAM JAM ASIA features over 50 bands from Taiwan and overseas

To connect upstream and downstream elements of Taiwan’s pop music industry, TMC has created JAM JAM ASIA, a grand musical event with an international vision. The idea is to allow local and foreign musicians, by resonating with each other through creating and performing together, to show their ability and interact on stage to make it an iconic event for Asian music. JAM JAM ASIA performances will take place in the TMC Concert Hall, LIVE HOUSE A, LIVE HOUSE C and LIVE HOUSE D in turn, featuring 50 groups of musicians from countries including Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines as well as Taiwan. For more information, please visit the official TMC website at www.tmc.taipei.

According to the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), as a festival organized jointly by DCA, the Department of Economic Development, the Department of Information Technology and the Department of Information and Tourism, TRENDY TAIPEI breaks with the government’s tradition of offering free tickets to the public by adding some ticketed events; in doing so, the organizers hope to lead the way in integrating resources from both public and private sectors and in encouraging the private-sector entities to be involved in events held in their city. The goal is to market the city by hosting large-scale combined events and exhibitions to energize the local music industry and other related businesses and to raise the international profile of Taipei. More information regarding the concerts, the business forum and tickets will be made public closer to the time. Please visit the official website of TRENDY TAIPEI (www.trendy.taipei) or the festival’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/trendytaipei).