Breaking News: 2008 Beijing Pop Festival Called Off

Shan Wei of Rock For China dropped a major bomb today: there will be no Beijing Pop Festival this year, due to uncertainties in the current climate for music events.

"Things are too risky this year," he said. "It’s the earthquake, the Olympics, Bjork – everything this year has affected our decision.” He also stressed that it was an internal decision made by Rock For China, without any signal from the government.

Reached by phone in Hong Kong, where he’s making his own rounds through a few other music conferences, Rock For China president Jason Magnus confirmed the festival’s cancellation for this year, saying that the decision was made for purely “prudent” reasons, due to the financial risks with possibly being faced with a canceled festival after paying for permits and artist fees – a situation, for example, that Midi found themselves in (fortunately, they’re historically thrifty with their artist fees).

“Bjork has had a big impact – it was really bad timing, right before the torch relay,” he says, adding, “[even post-Olympics], one has to be careful, I’d say for at least a year after the Olympics. It’s very hard to predict how the government will react, but you can’t blame the Ministry of Culture – they just don’t want to take chances.” Also, as Olympic preparations are likewise affecting Chaoyang Park (with the beach volleyball events being held there), “it’s not just a government issue, it’s about venues – we don’t want to take the risk.”

“We had a great lineup ready for this year,” says Magnus. And while he wouldn’t tell me who was in that lineup, of course, he did mention that they had “listened to the criticisms” from last year, suggesting that the bill might have been “more dance-oriented, with more contemporary artists, nothing too old. We wanted to make a lot of changes: get rid of the VIP area, have a bigger (though perhaps not as subversive) lineup, etc.”

Rest assured, however, that Beijing Pop Festival is still Rock For China’s central event (and as such, we should definitely expect an edition next year, and years after that). In the meantime, Magnus says, “we’re working on some other things. Currently, the festival format is really risky, but we might try something different at the end of the year.” (Among other shows, Rock For China also organized the NOFX show in April 2007 – something the band might have a comment or two about.