Asia News: John Mayer In Tokyo; Japan’s New Festival; Jay Chou Crowds; Yo-Yo Ma Tix Scalping

JAPAN

John Mayer Closes Year At Blue Note Tokyo

John Mayer will close out the year at the Blue Note Tokyo nightclub. The American singer-guitarist will play two sets each night from Dec. 29-31.

It will be his first appearance in Japan in four years.

“I can’t think of a better way to celebrate a year of musical adventure than by closing out 2023 with a run of New Year’s shows at the world famous Blue Note Tokyo, Japan,” Mayer wrote on his Instagram account.

“It’s been a dream of mine to play @bluenotetokyo and I can’t wait to return to Japan.”
In other concert news, Iron Maiden extended its “The Future Past” tour into 2024 and included four shows in Japan: Sept. 22 at Sky Hall Toyota in Aichi Prefecture; Osaka Castle Hall on Sept. 24; Tokyo Garden Theater on the 26th and Pia Arena MM in Yokohama, Sept. 28.

So far, the Japan dates are the only ones announced for Asia.

Hitachinaka Gets New Festival

When the Japanese music magazine Rockin’ On moved its annual Rock in Japan Festival, the biggest in Japan in terms of attendance, to a new venue in Chiba Prefecture, just east of Tokyo, last year, it left its old venue, the Hitachi Seaside Park, where it had been based since it started in 2000, in the lurch.

However, according to Kyodo News Service, Hitachinaka has bounced back by launching its very own music festival called LuckyFes this past summer.

More than 40,000 people attended the festival for three days in July.

While that number doesn’t approach the attendance for Rock in Japan the last time it took place in Ibaraki in 2019 (330,000), it was enough to convince Rockin’ On to return to Hitachinaka next year, which means Rock in Japan will take place in both Chiba and Ibaraki, albeit in different months.

LuckyFes, which is centered on Japanese music, in particular hip-hop and anime songs, is the brainchild of Yoshito Hori, the majority owner of Ibaraki Broadcast System, also known as LuckyFM.

Hori told Kyodo News Service that he wanted “to do something for my hometown.”
Though Hori had no experience in running a large-scale music festival, he hired a company that had worked with Rock in Japan to “handle security and delivery of facilities.”

CHINA

Jay Chou Draws Masses To Shanghai

Mandopop superstar Jay Chou’s “Carnival World Tour” continues to steamroll over Asia. ChannelNews Asia (CNA) reports about 100,000 fans gathered outside Shanghai Stadium each night of the singer’s four-night run in the city, which concluded Oct. 15.

The shows for the stadium, which can hold up to 80,000 people, sold out in a matter of minutes when tickets went on sale in September, but that didn’t stop fans without tickets from showing up.

Referred to by CNA as “tailgaters,” these fans simply want to “get a glimpse of the concert’s flashing lights and snippets of Chou’s songs.” Each concert lasts about 3 hours.
Some intrepid individuals have even tried to gain access to commercial and residential buildings near the stadium to hear the music more distinctly and get a better view of the light show. CNA also says that some high-rise residents have “jokingly” offered their balconies as “alternative nosebleed seats” at reasonable prices.

Consequently, local police set up barricades and alternative pedestrian routes to control the traffic around the stadium.

What was also notable about Chou’s Shanghai concerts was how difficult it was for scalpers to take advantage of them. The present tour has been plagued by price-gouging: scalpers buy up large numbers of tickets and sell them on secondary platforms at huge markups. But the organizers of the Shanghai shows introduced a “strong real-name matching system” for ticketholders, reports the China Daily, requiring the ticket purchaser and the person who gains entrance for a seat to be one and the same.

The system had been recommended by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in September after receiving complaints all year from Chinese concert-goers, and the organizers of the Shanghai shows seem to be the first who have taken the suggestion to heart.

HONG KONG

Yo-Yo Ma Ticket Scalping Causes Price Spike

Speaking of scalping, demand for tickets to an upcoming performance by American cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Hong Kong has reached such insane levels that prices on secondary markets have soared to HK$17,000 ($2,210) per seat, according to Hong Kong media.

Ma will play with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra led by Jaap van Zweden on Nov. 8 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of Chinese University.

The face value of the tickets, all of which sold out quickly in August, range from HK$480 to HK$1,980, and the skyrocketing secondary prices have been fueled by demand from rich people who live in the area.

Though Ma comes to Japan to play almost every year, he rarely performs in Hong Kong.

MACAU

Introducing KoolTai Macau Music Fes.

The first-ever Macau International Pop Music Festa, also called the KoolTai Macau Music Fes. 2023, will take place at the Venetian Macau on Nov. 11-12.

So far, the lineup includes Britpop veterans Suede, making its first appearance in Macau, Japanese bossa nova singer Lisa Ono, British pop singer Jessie J, British R&B artist Corrine Bailey Rae, and several acts from Taiwan, China, thailand, Hong Kong, Macau and Malaysia.