[UPDATED] Festival Meltdown: May's Musical Madness in Limbo

[UPDATED Mar 3 12.30pm] The Strawberry Festival has officially been postponed from its traditional May 1 weekend date, with organizers seeking to reschedule it for sometime in the summer, a Modern Sky representative told the Beijinger.

Festivals are known for overpriced concessions, overselling tickets to cram large open areas with city folk, and long lines for portable toilets overflowing with festival waste. Despite this, they are welcomed events in the capital that often signal the beginning of summer. Yet, this season many are being cancelled, postponed, or moved out of the city.  

The most recent example was the 330 Metal Festival. Authorities shut it down citing safety concerns as the reason. It was a dramatic conclusion to a small scale fest at Tango Live, that left Beijing’s metal heads sobbing. The cancelled event is organized annually by Kou (from the band Suffocated), who spent about USD 13,000 out of pocket to make it happen.

As of this week, it has been leaked that Strawberry Festival will be postponed (too soon to say cancelled) to a later date in June or July. Although this hasn’t been officially confirmed, it is likely impossible to organize such a massive happening with a handful of overseas performers in less than a month before the scheduled date. 

Midi, on the other hand, will still happen but at a new festival grounds in another city. They’ve had a couple hiccups finding a “suitable location,” and are currently in talks with an appropriate venue to make sure the show goes on, more or less as planned. We’ll let you know as soon as this info is released. So far, they’ve confirmed Slovenian metal heads Noctiferia and American metalcore unit Killswitch Engage will be present.

As far as we’ve been told, INTRO and the Great Wall Festival are still a go, but in this current state of administrative agoraphobia anything could be sent to the chopping block.

Photo: darkroom.baltimoresun.com