The Wan Bay Music Festival (灣島音樂祭) was scheduled to take place in Hengchun, Pingtung County this weekend (2-4 July 2010). As a result of an injunction from the Pingtung County authorities it has been cancelled. Police were concerned the festival would be used for the sale of illegal drugs. Some bands will still play "unplugged" at the beach over the weekend. A statement from the organisers is below. 

Due to an injunction from the local authorities, the first Wan Bay Music Festival has been cancelled.

With only a few days to go before the start of the Festival on July 2, the Pingtung County authorities (comprising the Hengchun Police, the Magistrate Office in Manchou, the Pingtung Office of the Forestry Bureau, Ministry of the Interior, the Pingtung County government, the No. 3 Nuclear Power Station, the Coast Guard and the Kenting National Park Service) jointly decided on June 29 to place an injunction against the Festival. The Police claimed to have hard evidence that the Festival was to be used for the sale of narcotics and controlled substances, while the Forestry Department claimed the festival site was unauthorized. 

The organizers and Chief Happiness Ministers of the Festival, A-Geng and Noise Steve, convened a meeting of the key stakeholders in the event to compose this press release and to thank each and every one of the volunteers, bands, and environmental groups that had agreed to participate. 

As of June 29, the Forestry Department, Detectives, and Polce swarmed the site of the Festival, erecting injunction announcements and effectively closing the beach. Since the 27th, Detectives and Police Officers have been seen on surveillance rounds around the perimeter. A-Geng and Noise Steve have issued a statement to the effect that the Wan Bay Festival is not connected to the sale of controlled substances, and that any and all such actions are to be condemned. 

The organizers solemnly offer their sincere apologies to all those who had planned on participating in the upcoming festivities. The event has been rescripted, and is now fully unplugged. This means that the organizers will still provide food and rudimentary accommodations for the entire three-day period. Live music, no amplification permitted, will be accommodated on the beach. Those bands and the several dozen volunteers, along with Steve and A-Geng, already on hand are determined to hang on and carry forth with the plans for a wonderful festival, albeit of an unplugged nature. The buses scheduled to depart from Taipei for the Festival site will leave as planned on July 2. At least some 20 bands with instruments will be on the beach in unplugged fashion singing freely. 

Wan Bay Festival Organizers
Noise Steve and A-Geng

Information from Facebook.