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Hong Kong’s CT Music Fest goes camping in Cheung Chau

CT Music Fest heads to the Saiyuen campsite for 3 days of close listening, community vibes and a Hong Kong-first artist lineup

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A band plays at last year’s CT Music Fest, which is back for its third edition. Photo: courtesy CT Music Fest
Gavin Yeung

Hong Kong’s sheer density means that the traditional music festival experience, where fans camp overnight near the performance stages, is nigh on impossible to find.

The CT Music Fest is betting on an antidote. For its third edition, the event – organised entirely by local Hong Kong musicians – is swapping its previous venues (a 300-person Star Ferry and a giant Central club) for something radically different: a three-day, two-night camp-out.
Running from November 21 to 23, the festival is taking over the 500,000 sq ft Saiyuen campsite on Cheung Chau. The goal is simple: to slow everyone down. “When people camp, the pressure falls away,” says the festival’s founder, Joe Lung. “You wake up to soundchecks through the trees, you walk to a stage instead of racing a timetable and the music gets your full attention.”
Modern jazz is at the core of CT Music Fest and more such acts will feature at the Hong Kong event this year. Photo: courtesy CT Music Fest
Modern jazz is at the core of CT Music Fest and more such acts will feature at the Hong Kong event this year. Photo: courtesy CT Music Fest

This focus on “close listening” comes directly from the festival’s roots in diminutive Central bar Chez Trente, which has hosted more than 400 mini-concerts to date.

That original space was built as an “egalitarian space for artistic exchange”, and the festival reflects the same spirit. “We kept the core – intimacy, attention, community – and gave it more sky,” says Lung. The desired result? “Presence stops being a poster word and becomes the weekend’s mood.”

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