Hear Here 2025 Celebrates Music from 8 Countries in Historic Hengchun
Hengchun marks 150 years with Hear Here 2025, blending yueqin traditions, folk heritage, and world music from eight countries in Taiwan’s southernmost town.
Hengchun marks 150 years with Hear Here 2025, blending yueqin traditions, folk heritage, and world music from eight countries in Taiwan’s southernmost town.
On the Hengchun Peninsula, Taiwan’s southernmost region, a massive music celebration that crosses borders and brings you back in time is about to take place on the 150th birthday of the town’s establishment: the Pingtung County Government-organized Hear Here World Music Festival, from October 15 to 19 at the West Gate Square in Hengchun. For this year’s theme, “Bandoh, Let’s Folk Rock,” we break boundaries and mingle traditional folk music, contemporary music, and world music from nine groups with members from eight countries.
Bandoh is the tradition of holding a celebratory meal outdoors, often on the street, underneath tents filled with round tables; the food is also cooked outside, near the tents. Guests enjoy tasty food and the warmth of being together. This year’s festival extends that concept to music: the yueqin is to be the main “dish,” accompanied by other “dishes” of folk music and “seasoned” with world music. The diverse musical lexicon will promote exchange between Taiwan and overseas nations, and between the traditional and the contemporary while integrating music and culture in this musical bandoh!
As this is the town’s 150 th birthday, Pingtung County Magistrate Chou Chun-mi wishes to show the world the history and culture of the local folk music on the internationally oriented platform of Hear Here. “This both local and global event is proof of the Pingtung County Government’s long-term support and initiative for the folk-music culture and how local musicians are keeping tradition alive via innovation,” said Chou.
“The festival focuses the world’s gaze on stellar local musicians while providing them an opportunity and space for exchange with artists from abroad. All in all, it is an exhibit of Taiwanese creativity and cultural depth that allows people from all over the world to experience our cultural diversity and musical talent that we’re so proud of.”
As this is the town’s 150th birthday, Pingtung County Magistrate Chou Chun-mi wishes to show the world the history and culture of the local folk music on the internationally oriented platform of Hear Here. This event is both local and global in scope, so Chou invites everyone to come to this old town and experience the landscape of southern Taiwan while sharing in the friendliness of Hengchun through music.
The main show this year, “Let’s Folk Rock! A Bandoh with the Yueqin,” will be headed by Golden Melody Award-winning Sauljaljui, a Pingtung native, and accompanied by musicians of various genres from Hengchun as well as crossover music artists from Australia, Japan, the US, and more, including Japanese shamisen player Noriko Tadano and Nini, a Taiwanese musician who reinterprets Hengchun classics on her plucked instruments with a soft rock style and floored judges on America’s Got Talent last year!
This year’s performers come from Japan, Australia, Italy, the US, the UK, France, Malaysia, and Taiwan. This convergence of nations will bring us a musical and cultural potpourri with more than ten types of non-mainstream plucked instruments, such as the Italian mandolin, Bornean sape’, Middle Eastern oud, and American banjo and mandolin. Aside from a continual stream of stage shows from Taiwan and abroad, there will be the “Bandoh on Stage” event (a blend of cooking, folk music, and creative percussion), the Folk Cup[M1] (a longstanding folk music competition), Folk Songs with Grandma (performances by locals), a street fair with local food and crafts, and tours of the historic city so that visitors may enjoy an in-depth experience of Hengchun beyond its music.
This multicultural peninsula has a unique seasonal climate, and nearby Kenting National Park is one of Taiwan’s most popular tourist destinations. The Hear Here festival was initiated in 2018 and has since won multiple design and culture awards while bringing Hengchun folk music to the global stage in such places as Chicago, New York, Edinburgh, and Japan. This old town is going to party for five days on its 150th birthday with events that are more open and cross-cultural than ever as it shares its musical appeal with the world.
Everyone is welcome at the 2025 Hear Here World Music Festival to meet with world music in the moonlight!
FOR MORE INFORMATION about the Hear Here World Music Festival, visit their official IG here.
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