Sat, 9.30pm, XL Creation
The Pearl River Delta is all about building bridges these days (just ask the Chinese white dolphins), and even the live music world is getting in on the act.
Saturday night sees the second edition of Macau Flash - a gathering of some of Hong Kong's best young bands and DJs and their Macau-based counterparts. It's the brainchild of David Valentim, who has lived in both cities and found himself wondering why there wasn't more interaction.
'Most of my friends in Hong Kong are musicians,' says the Portugal-raised Valentim, a part-time promoter who earns his crust as an architect. 'They are always saying there is a lack of a live scene in Macau. There are more than enough venues around if you combines the two cities, so we thought about bringing all the new sounds from each town together.'
Valentim says people from Hong Kong and Macau know little about each other's music scene. As a result, promoters in one city aren't keen on booking bands from the other. But things are changing. Easier access - with more ferries, and the bridge to come in the future - means the two cities are getting closer as entertainment venues. And so at Macau's XL Creation club on Saturday night you can see the likes of Hong Kong's two-piece power-poppers Pixeltoy (above) being joined by Macau rockers Mapo Eggplant on a card that will see six bands, five DJs and a video artist performing.
'There are many bands in Macau and Hong Kong that play all kinds of music and so we are hoping that, through this, they can get together more,' says Valentim. 'I know people from both places, having lived in both recently, so I am in the perfect position to bring it off.'
