The history of Hong Kong’s H2 music festival, in pictures: as The Wanch’s legendary local band showcase returns in 2023, we celebrate epic moments with Logo, Weeper, Bamboo Star, Hey Joe Trio and more

Jun 25, 2023

Yanyan Pang, lead singer of After After Party, performs at the most recent edition of The Wanch’s long-running H2 music festival, in 2019.The city’s “largest showcase of local bands” returns in 2023 for the first time in four years. Photos: Hong Kong Rocks

Hong Kong live music institution The Wanch will launch its first full H2 festival since the pandemic from June 27 to July 2 – to celebrate, Style sat down with founder Keith Goodman for a walk down memory lane

56 bands will play over 6 days – from Black Sabbath tribute Supernaut and local favourites Rubicube and Rockstars Anonymous, to recent Aftermath Battle of the Bands winner Whitt’s End

Like so many things in Asia’s so-called “world city”, Hong Kong’s music scene can be neatly divided in two – with the expat-centric/English-language/island-focused bands on one side, and the local/Cantonese/Kowloon-side musicians (quite literally) on the other.

But while there are numerous venues, individuals and sub-scenes that can claim to have played a deep role in nurturing home-grown creativity north of Victoria Harbour, the Hong Kong Island scene really only has one spiritual home – and that home is The Wanch.

In business since 1987, the Wan Chai bar is among that rare breed of after hours establishments that actually deserve the term institution. Since 2010, it has hosted an annual festival that legitimately claims to be the city’s largest and longest showcase of local talent, running for around a full week. For obvious reasons, that event has been MIA since 2019, but now the venue is gearing up for its first H2 festival in four years – in a shiny new home, to boot.