Pop culture festival ComplexCon makes Asian debut in Hong Kong with hip hop stars whipping up crowd into frenzy
The first non-US edition of pop culture festival ComplexCon kicked off in Hong Kong on Friday night, drawing thousands of fans from the city, Taiwan and mainland China for its debut music performance.
The first of the three-day festival at AsiaWorld-Expo near the city's airport featured performances from Chinese-language hip hop stars from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland.
Hong Kong rapper Novel Fergus, dubbed the "hip hop poet", local group 3CORNERZ, Taiwan's Shou Lou and Lexie Liu from the mainland strutted their stuff.
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Liu in particular whipped up the crowd into a frenzy with her 40-minute set.
"I am a big fan of Lexie, and I am really excited to see her," Maggie Liang, 25, said ahead of her performance.
She and her boyfriend arrived in Hong Kong from Guangdong province via the high speed rail earlier on Friday, and planned to stay for the entire event before leaving early on Monday morning.
"But I think the acts on the final day will be the highlight. I think a lot of people will be here and the atmosphere will be great," she said, referring to Sunday's musical line-up, with American rappers 21 Savage and Lupe Fiasco headlining, and South Korea's Park Jun-won, better known by his stage name pH-1, also on the bill.
Saturday's music will go full South Korean, with Coogie, GREY, Loco, Simon Dominic and Woo Won-Jae performing.
Taiwanese visitor Joshua Wang, 32, said he had wanted to take a trip to Hong Kong since borders reopened after pandemic restrictions were lifted last year, and finally took action to book tickets when he heard the city would host the first non-US edition of the festival.
"I had attended ComplexCon before when I used to live in the US, and had a good time," he said, adding he had always been interested in repeating the experience, but moving back to Taiwan meant it would be more difficult because of the distance.
"So I guess everything lined up in my favour this time."
The event also gathered street and pop culture heavyweights, including Japanese artist Verdy taking the helm as artistic director. Streetwear icon Hiroshi Fujiwara, local DJ and designer Eric Kot Man-fai and South Korean-born, Virginia-based Junghoon Son with his brand Vandythepink also feature.
ComplexCon was launched in Los Angeles in 2016, gathering urban culture and music artists, with past performers including Snoop Dogg, Selena Gomez and Offset.
The Asian debut is supported by the government's HK$1.4 billion Mega Arts and Cultural Events Fund, which Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu announced in his policy address last October.
Event organisers previously said about 30,000 guests were expected from across the region.
Full-event tickets priced between HK$2,380 (US$304) and HK$4,780 sold out in just a few hours after they were released on January 30. Single-day passes went on sale in February, ranging from HK$380 to HK$1,280.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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