Cover Cocoa Zhou will bring Open by He.r to the streets of Hong Kong this March (Photo: Lamma courtesy of Zhou)
Cocoa Zhou will bring Open by He.r to the streets of Hong Kong this March (Photo: Lamma courtesy of Zhou)
1 / 1
After building one of Hong Kong’s most coveted underground club nights at Mott 32, Cocoa Zhou is taking over the streets of Central—and bringing Denmark’s Tripolism to Asia for the first time
Cocoa Zhou has always known how to hold a room—even when that room is a vault buried beneath one of Hong Kong’s most storied restaurants. As the founder of invitation-only musical evening He.r 鶴, she turned Mott 32’s subterranean corridors into one of the city’s most coveted electronic music experiences.
But for her next act, Zhou is thinking bigger, louder and decidedly above ground. On March 29, she and music director Alex Nude will transform Chater Road into an open-air festival for sound and design—and she’s bringing Denmark’s Tripolism, the only Danish act at Coachella 2025, along for the ride.
He.r launched in late 2025 and is already selling out weekly at Mott 32. When you first pitched this concept, did you believe it would move this fast?
Cocoa Zhou: I always believed in the vision, but the speed of the response surprised me. Mott 32 represents a certain standard of taste in Hong Kong—it’s a place where the clientele understands quality and nuance. Seeing that crowd connect with it immediately told me we weren’t just launching another party; we were filling a void. But honestly, the speed also told me that I wasn’t alone in needing a new kind of rhythm.
Becoming a mum recently shifted my entire perspective on nightlife. I love music, I love my friends, and I love to dance—but I can’t do the 2am start any more. I needed a space where I could carry the energy of a great dinner into a night out, where I could see my friends’ faces and hear them talk, and still feel the music in my body and dance through the night. The fact that it moved this fast tells me there are so many people who wanted exactly that balance.
He.r is described as a “personal manifesto”. What are you trying to say that existing Hong Kong nightlife wasn’t saying?
Zhou: Let me be clear about something: music isn’t something I do on the side. It’s who I am. I love it so much that I continued to perform even at eight months pregnant. Just three months after my son was born, I was already planning the launch of He.r—not because I was restless, but because I refused to believe that motherhood meant the end of this part of my life.
Here’s the reality check that came with those early months: I realised I loved touring. I love taking my sound to different cities, different crowds, different energies. But with a newborn in Hong Kong, regular international touring became unrealistic. I couldn’t be away for weekends at a time. But then I thought: why does the music have to happen somewhere else? Why can’t I build something here that gives me—and people like me—access to the energy I’d normally have to travel for? The crowds I love playing for, the venues I love playing in, the sound, the sophistication, the balance between connection and dance floor—what if I just built that in Hong Kong? And because it’s at Mott 32—a venue I love, a space with the right bones, the right team, the right energy—I don’t have to leave Hong Kong to feel like I’m part of something global. Your social life doesn’t end when your priorities shift. It evolves. And if you’re lucky, you get to build the evolution yourself. That’s He.r.
You’ve played in Mykonos and the famous London club Annabel’s— you move between very different rooms and crowds. How does your global touring life feed back into what you’re building in Hong Kong?
Zhou: Touring is essential, for the ears, for the perspective, for understanding what the world’s best rooms are doing. Alex Nude, the He.r music director, held residencies at both Scorpios and Moni in Mykonos. That experience doesn’t stay in Europe; it comes home with us, to Mott 32, every Saturday night.
Hong Kong is ready for this conversation. The city has always had the appetite, the sophistication, the cultural curiosity. What we are doing at He.r is building that bridge—bringing the global standard here and proving that this city doesn’t need to travel to feel it.
Luxury, fashion and art: these worlds have always been connected—they just haven't always danced together. On Chater Road during Art Week, they finally do.
The line-up for this event—Tripolism, Ani Phoebe, Mimi x FY— feels very intentional. What was the curatorial logic behind it?
Zhou: Every name on this line-up was chosen with intention. Tripolism, the Copenhagen trio behind Dope Dance and the only Danish act at Coachella 2025, brings a European warmth that moves people without effort. Mimi x FY bring a raw, infectious energy, that those who follow electronic music closely will recognise immediately. And then there is Ani Phoebe, the edge. A vinyl-head, she represents the kind of curation that reminds you why music always matters. And of course, He.r Soundsystem. Alex Nude and myself, together, we are the sound of the brand itself. Hong Kong’s audience is ready for this. They travel, they listen, they know. Open by He.r is simply giving them the chance to experience it here, on their own streets, in their own city.
Art Basel week is when Hong Kong gets a very specific kind of global visitor—collectors, gallerists, creatives. Are you programming for them, or is Open by He.r specifically for the city itself?
Zhou: He.r is always for Hong Kong first, and right now, “for Hong Kong” means creating spaces that work for the way people live here. During Art Basel, the city’s energy amplifies because the world is watching, but we aren’t changing who we are to accommodate visitors. If anything, we double down on our core philosophy: that nightlife should be accessible in timing, sophisticated in execution and genuine in connection. The international guests who appreciate that? They find us.
See also: Actor Awards 2026: the red carpet moments shaping awards season style
Taking over Chater Road during Art Week is a bold statement. What does it feel like to put a music and arts festival in that specific space?
Zhou: Chater Road is one of Central’s most iconic corridors, but when people think about it, they usually think about finance, luxury brands, corporates. And that’s accurate—it’s home to some of the most prestigious names in fashion, in banking, in commercial real estate. But here’s what’s interesting to me: those worlds—luxury, fashion, art—they’ve always had synergy with music and culture, they just haven’t always occupied the same physical space.
Open by He.r is a design-led festival. We think about everything through a curatorial lens—the music, the space, the lighting, the flow, the feel. That’s not so different from how a luxury brand thinks about a flagship store, or how an art gallery thinks about an exhibition. It’s all about intention, craftsmanship and creating an experience that feels considered. So putting Open on Chater Road during Art Week isn’t a disruption of that space’s identity—it’s an activation of it.
We’re bringing the design sensibility that already exists in those luxury boutiques and corporate headquarters out onto the street, into the open air, and adding music to the equation. It’s fashion week meets art fair meets festival culture, all in a corridor that already understands luxury and presentation. The synergy is natural. These worlds have always been connected—they just haven’t always danced together. On Chater Road during Art Week, they finally do.
If someone who’s never been to a He.r night asks you to describe the feeling of being there—not the music, not the line-up—just the feeling, what do you say?
Zhou: It feels like walking into the best dinner party you’ve ever been to, just as the plates are cleared and someone perfect puts on music. You can see everyone’s face. You can hear what they’re saying. The music wraps around you—but it never demands that you stop connecting with the people next to you. There’s no pressure to prove anything, no sense that you have to stay until some unspoken hour for the night to “count”. It’s warm, it’s welcoming, and you leave feeling energised, not depleted—connected to the music, connected to your friends and connected to a version of nightlife that fits your life.
He.r is “built to scale”. What does the next chapter look like—and what would success feel like to you?
Zhou: Success for me operates on a few different levels. First and most personally, I want to introduce more house music to this part of the world. In Hong Kong and across Asia, it’s still finding its audience. People are still getting familiar with it, still learning to distinguish between what’s formulaic and what’s genuinely crafted. Success, for me, means building a space where that education happens organically—where people come to dance and leave with a deeper understanding of what this music can be. Where the sound becomes part of their vocabulary.
Second, I want He.r to be a platform that showcases Hong Kong to the world through art, culture and music. We’re not just importing culture; we’re exporting a perspective. When international guests come through during Art Week, or when artists like Tripolism and Mimi x FY experience our city through He.r, they leave with a different impression of what Hong Kong is capable of. Not just finance, not just density—but taste, curation and community. Success means building something that makes the rest of the world pay attention to what’s happening here.
And finally, on a personal level, success feels like walking into Mott 32 on a He.r night and seeing a room full of people who found exactly what they needed—whether that’s someone discovering house music for the first time, a fellow parent finally getting a night out, or an international visitor realising Hong Kong has a scene they never knew existed. Success is proving that you don’t have to choose between depth and accessibility, between global standards and local roots. You can have both. We’re building it.
Read more:
Hong Kong’s golden era reignited: Inside Canton Disco’s 40th anniversary gala
Hitting the style notes: Ejae’s awards season fashion, from Dior to Leje
As Content Director at Tatler Hong Kong, Tara shapes the brand's editorial vision across social, digital and print, and reports on Asia's most influential figures — from CEOs and leaders across business, style and the arts. In her dual role as Head of VIP, she also drives the planning and execution of Tatler's flagship IPs, curating star-studded events and building the relationships and communities that define the brand. Born and raised in the Middle East, she honed her craft in Dubai, crafting communication strategies for luxury brands across the Gulf. Follow her on Instagram @tarasobti.
