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When Lamma Fun Day (LFD) was first held in 2000, it was a small affair: no stages, just a few buskers singing next to a handful of stalls selling food and crafts. One stall offered massages. David Wilkinson, the festival’s music coordinator for the past decade, recalls a couple of guys on guitars using a pay-to-hear tactic to tease money from the audience. “Basically, you had to drop money into a box and request a cover song,” Wilkinson says. “If they knew the song, they would play a few bars and then stop. If you wanted more music, you put another HK$10 into the box.” LFD is held each year on Lamma Island, about 12km (7.4 miles) off Hong Kong Island and accessible by ferry. The event has evolved from humble beginnings into the city’s longest-running free music festival. And this year’s event, taking place on November 15, boasts the biggest line-up in the festival’s history: 45 bands, DJs and solo artists performing across four stages, with the most fun concentrated at Tai Wan To Beach, also known as Power Station Beach. Run entirely by volunteers, LFD caters to every musical taste, from rock and folk to blues, reggae and electronic, says Wilkinson, whose band The VVs – the name derived from Lamma’s tiny village vehicles that zip around the island – is part of the line-up. While music is the beating heart of the festival, fundraising is its soul. Since its inception, LFD has raised money for Child Welfare Scheme (CWS), a charity that supports youth projects and initiatives in Nepal to combat human trafficking. LFD co-founder Andrew Doig says the idea for the fun day was born after a visit to Nepal. “My wife Debbie and I went to Nepal in 1999 and saw the good work CWS was doing there, so when we got home, we wanted to do something to raise funds for the charity,” Doig says. LFD’s aim, he adds, was to create a day where children could engage in fun activities such as beach volleyball and face painting, and to have stalls selling home-made crafts and food. “For one fun day, I borrowed a pirate’s costume, which made me look a bit like a town crier, so with a big bell in my hand, I walked through the main Yung Shue Wan village yelling ‘Oyez, oyez, Lamma Fun Day today,’” says Doig, who left Hong Kong in 2004. The first LFD raised about HK$50,000. Since then, each event has raised, on average, about HK$175,000 (US$22,500), the money supporting CWS projects such as the building of health centres in remote villages and vocational training centres to support street children. “We have also supported the rescue of girls from domestic slavery and we’re now working on a project that Lamma Fun Day is supporting to help young girls leave the adult entertainment sector,” says CWS founder Douglas Maclagan, who has lived in Nepal since 1994. Some musicians have played at LFD since its early days, while others are new to the scene. Take dad and daughter duo Anthony and Maki Brophy. Born in Hong Kong, Maki moved to the British city of Manchester in 2016, returning home this year to work in the pharmaceutical industry. A year before the move, Maki, then aged 15, took part in her first LFD, playing guitar with her sister Gaby. Now she is excited to perform at her second event. “This time I’ll be playing solo, and will perform a mix of covers, from Billy Joel to Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse,” Maki says. Her father Anthony has played at a handful of LFD events and this year is playing saxophone with his band, Electrogene Fanfare Club. US-born Jeni Chesnut-Tangerman, whose four-piece all-girl alt-folk band The Sirens formed during Covid, says events like LFD are important for Hong Kong’s small but passionate live music scene. She says The Sirens have played at four fun days and all have been eventful. “Last year there was torrential rain just as our set was starting, and we were worried people would leave,” Chesnut-Tangerman says. “But the crowd moved closer to the stage, set up canopies and danced on the beach while we played ‘It’s Raining Men’. Everyone got soaked, but it was so much fun.” She adds that while The Sirens’ LFD set list is not finalised, fans can expect much-loved tunes such as “Water Witch”. Lamma-based musician Aileen Alonzo-Hayward, whose social platform and magazine Pangyao has been helping LFD with the design of posters and T-shirts for the past three years, says volunteers – from the stage crew to the clean-up team – are vital. “This year, we are a bit more involved as we are also refreshing the website and introduced LFD organisers to Lorna Pagaduan, the president of the Filipino Nurses Association Hong Kong, who will be manning the First Aid tent with her group of volunteers,” she says. Wilkinson says LFD is a melting pot of music and nationalities. “At one fun day I met a Chilean guy who read about the event in a magazine at the airport, so I made a soft pitch to the Hong Kong Tourism Authority asking for it to be added to their official list of events.” The request was rejected – LFD was not international enough. Determined to show just how multinational the event was, Wilkinson walked around the 2018 festival asking people to say “Welcome to Lamma Fun Day” in their native language. He recorded 30 different languages. “While we get great government support, we didn’t get LFD added to an official events list, but we are certainly the longest-running music festival in Hong Kong. Nobody beats that.” As for Doig, he is proud that LFD continues to raise vital funds, foster community spirit and attract sponsorship. “Even things like having the power station provide power is a big deal as we didn’t have that in the past – we had to stop when it got dark.” Doig says attending another LFD is high on his wish list. “Douglas [Maclagan] often calls me from the stage and puts the phone near the microphone so I can say a few words, but it’s never successful … and usually people are pretty drunk by then.” For Lamma Fun Day programme details, visit the Pangyao website.
