A new mid-sized music venue in Hung Hom, backed by US-based entertainment giant Live Nation, held its opening ceremony on Tuesday.
TIDES is located in the yacht-shaped shopping complex The Whampoa. The 30,000 square foot, two-storey venue is expected to entertain up to 1,500 audience members, with owners promising state-of-the-art plug-and-play facilities for musicians.
With 360-degree sound and touring-grade infrastructure, the purpose-built music venue also hopes to host “corporate functions, fan meetings, brand activations, mid-scale productions and more,” according to a Tuesday press release.
Medium-sized venues
“The new venue will fill a crucial gap between the city’s mid-sized and small-to-mid-sized venues, since there were closures of some venues,” Live Nation’s Managing Director in Hong Kong Joanna Yuen said on Tuesday.
The loss of the medium-sized Music Zone venue in Kowloon Bay due to a redevelopment plan last year was a blow to independent gig organisers, many of whom have since struggled to find affordable spaces.
Hong Kong band The Hertz will be performing at TIDES on October 31: “Over the past two years, we performed at livehouses in various countries and observed their strong livehouse cultures. They hosted shows every week because they had excellent venues,” the band’s vocalist, Herman Wong said to HKFP in Cantonese.
“We hope TIDES will establish its own livehouse culture,” he added.
The government is looking to grow Hong Kong’s “concert economy.” Culture minister Rosanna Law said in January that large-scale pop concerts drew 4.3 million spectators between 2023 and 2024, generating HK$3.7 billion in spending and adding HK$2.2 billion to the economy.
Aviation technology
While the opening may ease the city’s venue shortage, some netizens have voiced concerns about potential noise and crowds in the otherwise quiet, residential neighbourhood.
“[W]e spent significantly more budget on acoustics than we expected,” Live Nation’s President of Venue Development Asia Stephanie Bax said on Tuesday. “[T]here was no noise leakage during all of the test events… and we have received no official complaints…”
She added that there was also a radio station downstairs.
Daniele Albanese, of engineering consultancy Cundall, headed the venue’s acoustic design. She said it aimed to be a place that artists can come and express themselves: “We put up heavy concrete walls all around [TIDES] like a bubble… We used acoustic materials that were designed for aircrafts.”
On Saturday, Japanese rock band Novelbright will make their Hong Kong debut at TIDES, whilst on November 13, Canadian rapper bbno$ will perform.
In 2023, Live Nation acquired a controlling interest in Hong Kong’s Clockenflap festival.
Smaller livehouses have long faced challenges in Hong Kong. Hidden Agenda, a popular indie spot, was raided by authorities in 2017 before rebranding as This Town Needs, which closed in 2020. The team has since staged events at venues like MacPherson Stadium and PORTAL. Earlier this month, youth-orientated nightclub and community space SLAP said it was closing over venue trouble.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source hongkongfp.com ’
