Festival Frenzy

Paul Ryding | Apr 12, 2012 4:00 pm | 4 comments | 1982 reads

As the music festival season fast approaches, there are a clutch of major events to note in your diaries.

From the five major music festivals slated for the summer, we’re set to be treated to a fair assortment of top international acts in addition to the usual stable of strong local outfits.

However, as we rejoice that the festival scene is maturing here in Beijing, with authorities relaxing certain stipulations a little, we get the inevitable troubling adolescent problems that occur around this time. Namely, we now have an established ‘festival silly season’ firmly in place and we seem to be in that period at the moment. Silly season consists of rumor after counter-rumor, followed by tenuous link.

There have been a couple already in the short time since provisional lineups were announced. Some of the more notable rumors are of a possible performance from American hip-hop queen Nicki Minaj as well as emo rockers My Chemical Romance. Neither of these have been confirmed to us.

Below are only the confirmations we have received from event organizers. We’ll keep you updated on more confirmations as we receive them from promoters.

Stretching back over ten years, Midi Festival has traditionally been top dog in Beijing, but with some dithering over announcing the final program for this year, and a distinctly underwhelming international lineup last year, a gap has opened up and it seems the new kid on the block, China Music Valley Festival, has sneaked in to fill it.

Backed by American promotional monster Live Nation, this year’s China Music Valley Festival (which had arguably the top bill last year, too, having managed to attract Avril Lavigne, Ladytron, Editors and KT Tunstall to town) appears to dwarf the competition again.

With an international (if very British-feeling) touring party including pop diva Joss Stone, as well as chart-topping indie rock acts White Lies, Friendly Fires and The Jesus and Mary Chain, CMVF looks set to be the hottest festival ticket in town this summer.

One saving grace for Midi and the more established festivals in town is that CMVF doesn’t go ahead until the end of May.

Midi Music Festival

April 29 – May 1

Tickets: TBA (April 30th: 80 RMB | May 1st: 150 RMB | May 2nd: 80 RMB | 3-Days: 200 RMB last year)

Location: Olympic Rowing Park

Confirmed lineup: Mos Def, King Ly Chee

Strawberry Music Festival

April 29 – May 1

Tickets: RMB 100 – RMB240

Location: Tongzhou Canal Park

Confirmed lineup: Blonde Redhead, New Pants, Queen Sea Big Shark, Carsick Cars

Ditan Folk Festival
April 30 – May 1
Tickets: RMB 80, RMB 60 (advanced), RMB 120 (two days)
Location: Ditan Park
Confirmed lineup: Shanren, Dolan, Xiaohe

Hanggai Festival
May 5 – May 6
Tickets: TBA
Location: Mako Livehouse
Confirmed lineup: Yemen Blues, Rhythm of Rajasthan, Tiloun

China Music Valley Festival

May 18 – May 20

Tickets: RMB 280 – RMB 400

Location: Yuyang International Ski Resort

Confirmed lineup: Joss Stone, White Lies, Friendly Fires, Jesus and Mary Chain


Stay tuned to thebeijinger.com for further updates.

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alextaggart's picture alextaggart Submitted by Guest on Fri, 04/13/2012 - 00:15

Interesting thing about the other stages is that they're all hosted by different promoters, which is a great way to dispose with partisanship and show off the incredibly wide variety of electronic music now on offer in Beijing, including many local DJs and producers. As I recall, all 3 stages closed out both days with big crowds last year.

I suppose I'd define a music festival as a coming together of a music scene, or a particular section of it (plus general party people and curious folk), to listen to the music they love, support the people who dedicate their lives to it, and generally have a good time. I get what you mean though, it sometimes doesn't feel like a festival unless you wake up in a tent and walk outside in your Y-fronts.

Looking forward to festival season Smile

P.S. I don't work for Acupuncture! Wink

gonobobel's picture gonobobel Submitted by Guest on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 20:23

And yeah, Intro is quite big, and the line-up is great this year too, but it's more of just a big party than a festival, the other stages besides the main one are a joke

gonobobel's picture gonobobel Submitted by Guest on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 20:21

Great, yet again a bunch of rock festivals without any bands that actually rock.

There are good bands, but why do the organizers insist on pretty much always bringing shoegaze-indie bands? No wonder Chinese rock is in such a poor state, they actually think that dream pop stuff is rock music. Give me fucking AC/DC!!!

alextaggart's picture alextaggart Submitted by Guest on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 17:43

Great round-up, but surely INTRO is a major music festival? Four years of big-name international acts and audience numbers in the tens of thousands...

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