Beijing Music Festival Breakdown Part Two: How Did Midi Measure?

We sent four intrepid revelers out to the four corners of the city to check out the opening exchanges and report back on their findings. (Yes, there were five events last weekend, but try as we might, we couldn’t manage to wrangle tickets for MAXX Festival.) We attempted to score the various festivals school report style, on everything from ticket prices and sound quality to beer availability and toilet standards. The festivals were evaluated in nine different categories and were awarded a final grade after consideration.

Here's part two, as we grade the Midi Music Festival.

Midi Music Festival

Shunyi Olympic Rowing/Canoeing Park
April 29 – May 1

Lineup - C

The Lineup was pretty strong, though the organizers had come in for some criticism due to how long it took them to actually set anything in stone. That certainly would have affected their pre-sales.

Mos Def pulled out (boo!), but Cui Jian stepped in (yey!). Outside of China that would be scant consolation, but the man is a rock god in the Middle Kingdom.

Israeli rockers Useless ID really stood out, as did Nasser of France on Day Three. SUBS took a little while to get going, but finished well. And the smattering of electro turns went down a storm.

In truth, many of the performances were good, though the sets were too short, some clocking in at less than 30 minutes.

Ticket price - B

RMB 100 per day, RMB 240 for three days.

Again, a reasonable price for three full days of entertainment. Though Mos Def showing up would certainly have put Midi over the top in these stakes.

Crowd atmosphere - B

Many of the acts tried to engage with the crowd, encouraging plenty of audience participation, which made for a nice atmosphere. And with revelers able to enjoy a drink, the vibe was very pleasant indeed. The crowd seemed to really enjoy the action on the eclectic Vans Tang Stage.

Sound quality - C

The sound was pretty good. Again, some of the smaller stages struggled with sound management, but by and large, the sound engineers were on good form. The sound quality was best in the electronic tent which cut a pretty sad sight in the daytime, but came to life as dusk descended.

The main problem was that some acts took a long time with their sound check and ate into their performance time.

Alcohol availability - C

Drink flowed (relatively) freely at Midi. That is as long as you like Tiger beer and Jagermeister, but we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. RMB 10 cans of beer were just what the doctor ordered. The mixed drinks tent was a disappointment though. Vodka and other mixers were available, but they were pretty watery.

It was fairly easy to take in your own drinks on the opening day. But this loophole tightened considerably on the second and third days.

Queuing time - B

Hearts sank when revelers rolled up at the gates on the opening day and saw the potential for a long wait just to get in the site. However, amazingly the queues started to move pretty quickly, and we were in after around 30 minutes. Days two and three saw no such problems.

Refreshments - C

There were two tents offering the ‘official’ soft drinks of the festival. They were water and green tea. It was low on snacks, but came through in the real food stakes offering good-quality chuan’r, hot dogs and noodles as well as veggie alternatives.

Bathrooms - D

The bathrooms were grim. Rows of portable loos which quickly adopted the look (and smell) of trenches. “They’re toilets,” I hear you ask. “What do you expect them to smell of?” Well, there are many examples of foreign and even domestic festivals which manage to retain passable and hygienic toilet facilities. Midi was not one of them. But then, festival toilets are often unkempt.

There were also pretty sizable lines to use the facilities.

Site security - A

There was a small army outside as revelers entered the site, but precious few inside. The ranks resembled airport security on the way in and were pretty thorough in their search for liquids. Though, luckily, our beer went undetected under lots of food and a blanket.

There was no confiscating of drink inside the grounds as occurred at Strawberry, and we witnessed absolutely no trouble.

Final grade – B-

With a nice mix of revelers – we witnessed Goths, moshers and hipsters frolicking freely together, the warm atmosphere was the best feature of Midi 2012. That and the beer, of course. Food was a tad expensive but varied. Toilets were probably the biggest let down. By the end of Day One, they were quite possibly the most hideous we’ve encountered in China. A big statement.