Three-day orgy of weird, daft and downright wonderful lined up by Clockenflap maestros

Japanese cuteness: BabyMetal will perform at Clockenflap      Photo: Blabbermouth

“Blessed are the weird people. The poets and misfits, the artists, the writers, and music makers, the dreamers, and the outsiders for they force us to see the world differently.” — Anonymous hippie

CLOCKENFLAP blasts off this month in a three-day orgy of music and art. Created by three young Hong Kong entrepreneurs, the shindig this year has more than 80 musicians and bands maxing out on six stages while ten installed and roving weird art shows blow the minds of thousands of revellers. Three years ago 60,000 people showed up for the city’s biggest bash. How much turnout will be affected by the Troubles will be revealed on 22, 23 and 24 November at Central Harbourfront Event Space.

Tickets are not cheap: $970 to $1640 (students pay less), but considering the costs of putting on a spree of this scale with imported talent CLOCKENFLAP’S founders Mike Hill, Jay Forster and Justin Sweeting are not over-charging.

“I’ve always been mad, I know I’ve been mad, like most of us . . . very hard to explain why you’re mad, even if you’re not mad.” – Pink Floyd

The festival is mainly about the music blasting across the harbourfront event space by the tourist wheel and in the shadow of International Finance Centre. Here are some of the daft lot who will be performing: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, DJ Freckles, David Boring, Regurgitator, Ghostly Park, Idiotape, Boogie Playboys and the Bombay Bicycle Club.

Then there will be the art shows plus amusements laid on in booths manned by restaurants, bars and companies of some usefulness like Carlsberg. Ten art shows will be set up at various locations; some will be roving: Lotus Temple, Tentacles, Mirabelle the Snail, Who-Do Caterpillars, Birdmen, Pinky Disco, Totem, Balloon Chain, Urchin and the mysterious Garden.

And watch the passing parade. Don’t expect to see pin-striped bankers and accountants. It is the odd squad that is bound to turn up, feathered and slinky, some of them looking like they just fell off the bus from Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

“The purpose of art is washing the daily life off our souls.” – Pablo Picasso