Meeting in music

Since 2008, Clockenflap has served as a showcase for international marquee names as well as promising local acts. As Hong Kong's flagship international annual music event returns tonight, a festival co-founder and some of the featured artists tell Rob Garratt what makes the Clockenflap stage so special.

Kicking off today, Clockenflap 2024 can be seen as a welcome return to business as usual. Hong Kong's flagship international music festival was on hold for more than four years — owing to the citywide unrest in 2019, followed by the pandemic. The hiatus was broken in 2023 with a double-header of events, in March and December.

This weekend's edition sees the festival return to take up its regular winter slot in the city's cultural calendar — a cadence that organizers have pledged to keep for 2025.

Rounding out the three-day festival on Sunday night is Jack White — the American rock revivalist behind the bands The White Stripes, The Raconteurs and the supergroup The Dead Weather. White's Hong Kong outing kicks off a six-month world tour. It was a sentimental booking for Clockenflap's co-founder and head of music, Justin Sweeting, who was present at the first-ever UK performance by The White Stripes in 2001. "It was in a tiny room, so it feels like a nice, complete circle to have Jack White close out the festival with what is going to be a colossal finale set," he says.