Hong Kong Freespace Jazz Fest is back: Jill Vidal, Eugene Pao and Ted Lo among 50 performers at 5-day event

The long ban on live music in Hong Kong is over, and the Freespace Jazz Fest is a welcome addition to the city’s recovery

With artists including Eugene Pao, Jill Vidal, Nate Wong and Ted Lo, the festival will feature jazz, funk, blues and ska

Reading Time:2 minutes

The Hong Kong Jazz Fest runs at the West Kowloon Cultural District. from October 26 to 30. Tsui Chin-hung (above) will be one of the performers. Photo: courtesy of West Kowloon Cultural District Authority

Published: 1:45pm, 24 Oct 2022

Now in its fourth edition, Hong Kong’s Freespace Jazz Fest is back, from October 26 to 30 at the West Kowloon Cultural District. The five-day festival will feature more than 50 performances, ranging from traditional blues to ska, from funk to Latin jazz.

It’s a much-needed fillip for the city’s live-music scene. A lengthy ban on live performances because of the pandemic, only lifted this month, closed a number of major venues and saw countless independent musicians struggling to survive.

The festival has already had quite the warm-up act. From October 8 to 16, a host of performers took their jazz notes across town on the Jazz Fest Pop Up Truck.

Good Funk Shui, Fountain de Yam, the Zoe Ng Quartet, Jerold and Friends, Quartet by Miriam, Chris Collins, Justin Siu and Antonio Serrano made stops at Paterson Street, in Causeway Bay, Haiphong Road, in Tsim Sha Tsui, and the Central Ferry Pier over the nine days to promote jazz music and the coming festival.

The Freespace Jazz Fest in 2021. This year’s Jazz Fest at the West Kowloon Cultural District runs from Oct 26 to 30. Photo: courtesy of West Kowloon Cultural District Authority

A special attraction this year is a new outdoor venue called Wonderland, which can be found next to the Hong Kong Palace Museum. There, a two-day weekend programme called “Jazzscapes” will be held on October 29 and 30.

The line-up includes jazz legend Eugene Pao, the aforementioned Good Funk Shui (a nine-piece funk bank led by drummer Nate Wong) performing pieces with singer-songwriter Phil Lam Yik-hong, R&B and jazz by the Daniel Chu Supergroup and singer Jill Vidal, as well as familiar jazz classics by The Andrew Tuason Big Band together with singer Sherine Wong Sook Ling.