Jul 16 Ho Hai Yan Festival in Taiwan

We left home at 2:30am on the 10th of July, another sleepless night for us. Indeed, after the rehearsal that we had with the SFCC members, we just only started packing, not without taking the time to raise our glass to the journey that was ahead of us! Even though we knew it meant no sleep, those 2 moments were so important for us we couldn’t even think of not having them! Once at the airport, we split ways, as we were not all on the same flight!

The band members had the privilege of being the first ones to leave. After a transit in Toronto, a surprise stop in Vancouver, and then another transfer in Tokyo, where their flight got delayed for over an hour, they were also the last ones to land in Taiwan, around 10pm on the 11th of July. Yes, that means 32 hours in transport from the moment they left home! We hit the road again (for the last time!), headed to the hotel! It was dark, but we could distinguish the mountains surrounding us as soon as we got outside the capital city, lit up by the houses and temples on their flanks, as well as the ocean just beside us on a very sinuous road. We arrived in Fulong Beach past midnight, exhausted but excited!

Some might go to bed. But that’s not how we do things. We packed the equipment in a room, some went out to grab some food while others got connected to internet to update you with what was happening. We ate, watching an old American movie, and then decided we should go outside. After all, there’s a pool, and it was still surprisingly hot and humid at this time of the night. We all got changed, only to find the lobby empty: it closes at 2:00am – and the pool way before that! Oh well. Too bad. Let’s just go back to our rooms. But oh, is that door really locked with only that small metal rod? And is it that easily removed? Looks like it is! And is that patio door leading to the pool the very same thing? Yes? Well, looks like we got ourselves an all-access to the pool, right beside our bedrooms! Once outside, in the pool with view on the ocean, we decided to have a toast. It was our first time in the country, and we all promised ourselves we would make the most of it!

3:45 in the morning, time for bed. After a very short night, I got up at 5:00 in the morning to head outside in order to see the sun rise over the ocean! Not much sleep, but we only have 2 days to catch the sunrise, so I didn’t want to miss the opportunity. I wandered around the hotel once the sun rose, a little fisherman village, where men go out to the ocean on small boats, and where women stay behind, taking care of humongous gardens where roosters can be heard with every step I took. It’s not even 6 in the morning, and it’s already very hot and very humid! Nobody speaks a word of English here, but everyone is very welcoming.

After sharing breakfast all together in the hotel restaurant, with a wonderful view on the ocean just in front of us, some decided to go to Taipei, to discover the city a little while we had a few free hours. Taipei is a big city with very low buildings, except for a few ones. The tallest tower in the world stood in its heart until 2010, which is very surprising considering the height of the other buildings. The least we can say is that the 101 Tower stood out against all the other buildings. We were expecting to see people everywhere, to find the city very crowded, the same way we’ve always known Asian cities to be. But Taipei is incredibly vast. We walked around quite a bit. And though the buildings are very plain in appearance, we can’t say the same of the people walking its streets. They are colorful, friendly, outgoing, very welcoming, and always ready to help a bunch of strangers obviously lost! We finished our visit of Taipei with something everybody had told us we absolutely needed to see: the night markets! We got there around 5:30 pm, and we weren’t exactly impressed… Until the sun went down. Along with the lantern hanging over our heads, illuminating the way our feet walked the already crowded streets of the night market found a way to welcome a lot more kiosks; meat, seafood (some of them still alive!), clothing from t-shirts with colorful prints to shirts and ties, pet shops and fish tanks, clocks and watches, restaurants serving local delicacies such as pig blood pudding, marinated black tofu, shaved ice. The darker the night, the more lively the night market.

We got back to the hotel, talked about each and everyone of our days, what we did, talked about the people we had met and things we had seen. We went to bed around 2am. At 4:45, some of us woke up again (thanks to a somewhat loud alarm that woke up more than only 1!), and headed to the beach to watch the sunrise. A few minutes after we got outside, as the sun was slowly rising, Alex ran back inside, waking up everyone so we would all witness the sunrise together. The sky wasn’t dark, but clouds were obstructing the way… We decided to raise our glasses to the evidence of things unseen. Some things, just like the sun that morning, can’t be seen with our eyes, but are real nonetheless.

Quick breakfast, and then came time to leave for the soundcheck. Already! It was hard to believe a full day had already gone by! The soundcheck started as early as 8:00am, and some of our friends who came back from theirs before we left told us we better get ready; it would be incredibly hot! We arrived there at around 10:30 in the morning, only to learn that our soundcheck would be delayed. It gave us time to get to know the stage, talk with the staff, discover how burning hot the sand was, and go to the beach as well. And then we started the soundcheck. It was 12, very exactly. And we were all thankful not to play our gig in full daylight like this. Soundcheck was painful enough…!

We came back to the hotel very fast after soundcheck was over and did the only thing possible. We went to the pool, with an urgent desire to refresh ourselves a little! Far from refreshing though, it felt like we were entering a giant outdoor bath… Needless to say, we didn’t stay there very long! Most people went for a quick nap, and we all met again at 6:00pm, for a last look at the soundcheck!

We arrived at the festival only to be amazed by the enormous quantity of people that was there! People had dug out holes in the sand, from where they were watching the festival comfortably, others used cardboard boxes to sit down on, others were watching from tents… No matter what you could imagine, it was happening there. There was no doubt, it was a festival on the beach! They didn’t stay comfortable like this for long. As soon as the over excited girl started announcing the band people got up, ready for the mind blowing performance the band was about to give them. The band got on stage, and right away, the audience got on fire! So were Your Favorite Enemies. One song after the other, the intensity rose and rose. No matter what stress and anxiety was felt before, it seemed like everything suddenly melted away, leaving room to the madness of the night. With all the circumstances that surrounded the festival, as Alex told us during the song “From The City To The Ocean”, he had lost his father the previous week, it made absolutely no sense to be there. Yet, it was important for Alex to be there, to perform, and to give his all, as he had promised his father he would do so after he had asked him to. And this is what this concert felt like: a complete let go. From the very beginning of the show, when Alex went to the very front of the stage, to the sides, running… He was told way beforehand he couldn’t jump off stage, so he managed to climb on the side of the stage, singing “she’s thinking of jumping”… And soon after, security invaded the area, thinking he would probably jump! Despite running from one side to the other like he did, he seemed however more fragile than he usually is. But I guess that this is also what being real is all about. In the good times and the bad times. And I can understand why he was so happy that the festival was broadcasted live… Because he wanted to share this moment with you all in a special way. Because you are the ones giving us courage on a daily basis. Because you are the ones allowing us to see new dawning lights colors.

And for all those of you who might have missed the show, you can watch it again here. The band’s performance starts at 4h 12m 27s 🙂

Like Your Favorite Enemies on FB

Follow @YFEofficial on Twitter

Visit the YFE Store

Follow YourFavoriteEnemies on Instagram

Subscribe to the YFENetwork Youtube Channel

And subscribe to our SFCC Fan Club!