Guide to the Beijing Pop Festival

2007’s Beijing Pop Festival is all set to rock China’s world this weekend (Sep 8-9) at Chaoyang Park. Last night, with most of the headliners already safely arrived in Beijing (with the exception of Nine Inch Nails and Public Enemy, who arrived this morning), Rock for China hosted a press conference featuring a straight-up, skinny-jeans wearing Marky Ramone (toting his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Statue), the new millennium New York Dolls (featuring a fit-looking Sylvain Sylvain, and a slightly worse-for-the-wear David Johansen), and the world's biggest dickhead, Brett Anderson (sample answer, paraphrased: “Actually, I’m only here because my management made me come - China sux.”).

As press conferences typically go, it was pretty lame affair – Cui Jian proved to be the most rock and roll one of all by blowing off the whole thing completely (although it turned out he was just stuck in traffic). But the crowd of reporters and hanger-on’s were treated to Mumiy Troll’s semi-fluent Chinese, theories as to whether anyone actually understands Johansen’s (New York Dolls) lyrics – which were submitted to the government, as were all the bands lyrics – and of course, scenes of mobbing photographers hoping for the perfect photo op. Some things you may not have known: Japanese band Ra:IN is actually pronounced “Line” (or something like that), Marky Ramone wears sunglasses inside at night “because he feels like it,” and Brett Anderson’s favorite color? “Shit brown.”

The serious news, as we reported yesterday, was that Flavor Flav would indeed not be coming, due to scheduling conflicts with VH1 and the filming of the new season of Flavor of Love. As for the dreaded VIP section, BPF organizer Jason Magnus reports that it’s nearly half the size that it was last year – primarily due to the fact that there’s a larger stage to accommodate Trent Reznor and his 20 tons of equipment. The crowds will still be railed off on the grass, off the concrete area in front of the stage, which will again, have several rows of chairs. “It’s the law,” says Magnus, “but we’re making progress. The audience will be much closer than they were last year, and next year, I hope the space will be even smaller.”

Getting Tickets:

Major ticketing agencies like Piaowutong and Piao.com have been handling the ticketing for the festival, but as it starts tomorrow, they will no longer allow you to book tickets over the phone or deliver tickets to your door. So if you're still trying to get your hands on some tickets, you’ll have to go to either the Piaowutong office, located about 300m west of Dongsishitiao on the north side of the street – if you have any trouble finding them you can call 400 818 3333 for directions or at the Piao.com office on the 7/F of Bldg 32, Dongzhong Street (the small street that heads north just to the east of the Poly Theatre) in Dongcheng District. Both agencies are only open from 9am to 5pm. You can purchase a one day ticket for RMB 200 or a two-day pass for RMB 380. The other option is to buy tickets at the festival site, the only problem with this is that they only sell day passes and that the tickets are more expensive (RMB 250).

Who’s Playing and When:

Saturday:

Sunday:

You can also view the schedule online here

Map of Festival Site:

You can click here to view a bigger image.

Getting There:

The festival takes place in the north eastern section of Chaoyang Park and although you can walk up from the main entrance in the south, it’s a little quicker if you enter the park from the east gate which faces onto the east fourth ring road.

Those taking public transport can take the following routes to the main (southern) gate of Chaoyang Park

The 302, 731 and 831 from Haidian.
The 834 from Tsinghua University West Gate
The 350 from Sanlitun
The 705 from Shuangjin and Guomao
The 710 from Lido and Wangjing
The 419 from the Lufthansa Center
The 117 and 815 from Dongzhimen and Chunxiu Lu
The 750 from Jianguomen

And the following routes to the eastern gate of the Park

The 657 from Lido and Wangjing
The 753 from Yayuncun

Useful Links and Phone Numbers:

If you still have any questions about the festival you can call the festival hotline on 6593 0367 or visit the following sites:
Official Beijing Pop Festival Site
Beijing Pop Festival MySpace (links to the MySpaces of most of the acts performing at the festival)
Piaowutong: Beijing Pop Festival
that’s Beijing: Feature: The Times They Are A-Changin'
HIT FM Beijing Pop Festival Site