Features
Asia: Ed Sheeran Disneyland, Tokyo Olympics Website, Another Church Concert Shutdown
– Ed Sheeran
Sheeran Plays HK Disney
Ed Sheeran performed his “first large-scale outdoor concert series” April 17-18 at the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort’s open-air venue, which was reconfigured especially for the event, according to Australasian Leisure. Each night, the 20,000-capacity venue was sold out, with fans coming from mainland China and several foreign countries just for the concerts.
Sheeran acknowledged from the stage that it was the first time he had ever performed at a Disney-affiliated facility. Two years ago, he had to cancel performances in Hong Kong because of an arm injury.
The managing director of the park, Stephanie Young, told the press, “We are so glad that Ed Sheeran has selected HKDL as the venue for his Hong Kong concert, and believe that we are well-positioned to bring more top-notch concert and resort experiences to music lovers from all over the region.”
Young also pointed out that the convenient location of the resort allows it to attract more international and regional event organizers and artists who need large-scale outdoor venues in Hong Kong, thus reinforcing the city’s aim to become the “event capital of Asia.”
Olympics Site Launches
Former Olympic gold medal swimmer Kosuke Kitajima launched the website for 2020 Tokyo Olympics tickets on April 18. On May 9 Japan residents will be able to buy tickets.
The site can be accessed in English overseas, but people outside Japan will only be able to buy their tickets from authorized agents in their own countries starting June 15. Nevertheless, the website will also include the schedule of events and a list of overseas ticket resellers, and so will likely attract a lot of international attention.
The website will also list prices, but non-Japan residents are being advised that ticket prices in their own countries will likely be higher, in some cases by a large margin. The reseller in the U.S. will be CoSport, which will also handle sales in Australia, Jordan and some European countries. Resellers are allowed to mark up the price by 20 percent as a “handling charge.”
The caveat is that many resellers will be bundling tickets for certain events with hotel rooms and other additions, mainly for corporate buyers and high income customers. Consequently, resellers may set prices quite a bit higher since they run the risk of getting stuck with tickets they can’t sell.
The senior director of ticket sales said at the launch that foreign ticket resellers who set “inappropriate ticket prices” might have their licenses revoked.
Any unsold tickets will be made available globally next spring at the same prices offered in Japan. Altogether there are 7.8 million tickets for the games, with 20%-30% designated for sales outside of Japan. These numbers may change in coming months as construction of new venues is completed. The most expensive ticket is 300,000 yen ($2,680) for the opening ceremony. Fifty percent of the tickets will sell for $70 or less.
Church Shuts Down Another
Several weeks ago, a Singapore concert by the Swedish black metal group Watain was canceled at the last minute by authorities due to complaints from local Christians alleging the band has an anti-Christian image. Subsequently, a Singapore-based black metal group, Devouror, had its Easter Sunday show in Malaysia canceled following a complaint from the Council of Churches Malaysia.
According to the South China Morning Post, a connection between Christian groups in the two Southeast Asian countries may have motivated the Malaysian Christian group to contact authorities on the matter.
Christians account for a smaller portion of Malaysians than they do of Singaporeans, many of whom belong to the Anglican Church. An expert told SCMP that since Christians are a minority in Muslim-majority Malaysia and generally secular Singapore, they tend to express their religiosity through actions such as promoting public morality. Prohibitions against certain musical forms and presentations are not unusual in the two countries, but normally they cover the possibility of violence or sexual suggestiveness that often come with concerts. In this case, however, the complaint is specifically tied to offending a specific group of people. Part of Watain’s image is that it is dogmatically anti-Christian, though many see this stance as mainly an act.
In Malaysia, Muslim groups have been at the forefront of canceling concerts by Western artists they deem as immoral, and so Christians in the country may now feel emboldened to make their case on their own terms. But in the end, both religions tend to use the same rationale: the concert being protested insults “religious sensitivities,” according to the SCMP.
The government of Malaysia is, of course, very anxious about religious insecurities, since they can sometimes lead to action. Teresa Kok, the Primary Industries Minister who is also a Christian, said publicly that allowing Devouror’s concert to go ahead would have created “division” and “tension.”
The Devouror concert was to have taken place at the Angkasa Event Space in Kuala Lumpur. It had been on the venue’s schedule for almost a year. A message on the organizer’s Facebook page read, “The cancellation of this event is not only a huge setback to us as the organizer in financial terms, but it has also caused many fans of extreme music to be denied their interest. In this democratic country, we are all aware of our freedom to invest interest in almost anything. For some people, extreme music is the preferred channel.”