Synergy Festival, curated by Sonia Calico, was a two-day celebration of Taiwan’s mainstream and underground, bringing out a diverse line-up of Taiwan’s creative scenes. 

Held in the first and fourth warehouse at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, the event sought to inject the city center with the spirit and vibe of a warehouse party. A stage was set up in the first warehouse, alternating between live acts and a DJ set-up. The fourth warehouse focused primarily on a DJ set-up, with a booth set-up for individuals to try their hand out with DJ equipment, and a trampoline that some jumped on and others just rested on. 

What was impressive was the range of acts that performed at Synergy Festival. A number of the acts were well-known feminist and LGBTQ party organizers or performers, including Betty Apple, Suan Liu, whose karaoke transgender performance had strong stage presence, and the Queer Trash Taiwan crew. Performers drew from across Taiwan, as in the presence of the Taichung-based The Cave crew, or XImending record shop owner A-Dao, and experimental music crew Meta Flexing. 

Likewise, the event highlighted Indigenous performers, such as DJ and producer Dungi Sapor or singer-songwriter A-Bao, who headlined the closing act of the first day with Sonia Calico, performing remixed versions of some of her standards. The event drew on acts not traditionally thought of as electronic music, including A-Bao or rapper Murky Ghost, who performed with the Meta Flexing crew. 

Standout performances included Mong Tong and LUDU, paired together with digital artist NAXS FUTURE for a performance that drew on NAXS’ video game-like aesthetics. DJ Jerry, traditionally not an artist of the underground but an icon of Taiwanese club music going back decades, closed the festival. Perhaps riffing on the age gap between Jerry and many of the performers, Jerry’s performance featured a “senior image”-like image of Internet cat celebrity Pipi in the background. The strongest visual performance may have been the transforming sequence of shapes that appeared as noise artist HH played. 

The event might not have been as dancey as one might have hoped, given that it took place during the daytime, and the festival couldn’t go into the deep night. But, either way, one hopes to see future events from Synergy Festival, and this is the start of a long-running event series.