Hong Kong live music gets a boost with The Week: seven nights, seven gigs, seven genres

Gig Week might have lost its Gig and become just The Week, but it’s still exactly what it was when it launched last year: a week of seven gigs exclusively featuring Hong Kong bands, with a different genre each night.

This year it’s being held at six different venues from April 15 to 21, showcasing 25 local bands.

Based on an original concept from India, last year’s Gig Week attracted hundreds of people with a diverse line-up that included everything from hip hop to electro to acoustic to punk, and even managed to turn a slim profit, a result that co-founders Elaine Ip and Paul Sedille say far exceeded their expectations.

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“We were thrilled for a first event,” says Ip. “A week before it started, we were saying, ‘If this goes how it looks like it’s going to go, how much money are we going to lose?’ But Hong Kong being Hong Kong, I guess lots of people bought tickets at the last minute.”

Adds Sedille: “We lived on ticket sales last year; we didn’t have a big sponsor. That proves it’s sustainable. But it’s still dependent on our voluntary work; bands kind of appreciate that we’re not getting paid.”

Last year the organisers went as far as making a video introducing themselves, just to prove that they weren’t an events company in it solely for the money. In other words, they were in the unusual position of trying to prove that they weren’t professionals.

That event was called Gig Week, but the “Gig” has been ditched after a disagreement with the original organisers in India over control and intellectual property – and after two months going through numerous other options, before returning to the simplest one – although that unfortunately makes the event hardest to find in a Google search.