Another look at the InMusic Festival:
http://www.chinamusicradar.com/?p=701
photos by Lisa Liang
In just its first year, the 2009 InMusic Festival was an ambitious attempt – 60-plus artists over a three-day span planned by a handful of people in less than three months. There were some ups, there were plenty of downs, and making it from beginning to end was a feat few pulled off. Still, if it were that easy, then it wouldn’t be rock & roll.
Here are a few highlights:
Day 1
When SUBS hit the Main Stage early evening, lead singer Kang Mao decided to rile up the audience and surf the crowd. The audience was happy to accommodate. Unfortunately, the confused security guards didn’t understand what was going on and were instead trying to “protect” her from the grabby hands of front-row fans, at which point she pushed the baoan off, gave a finger and warned them not to get in her way. She then proceeded to climb the railing and jump into the crowd.
Day 2
Wandering through the campgrounds and happening upon a bunch of rowdy boys playing football. It took a minute to realize that these weren’t your average punks – these were rock stars (though it should have hit right away that that was Joyside lead-singer Bian Yuan in a crazily patterned ’70s-style shirt with long, wavy Jim Morrison hair blowing in the wind).
Day 3
The last day being lucky number “3,” it deserves three highlights. First, XTX – his set was one of the best of the festival, from him pushing a cameraman off his guitarist and saying, “yo dude, can’t you see he’s trying to jam?” (not in those words), to his bass man throwing his instrument off stage and into the crowd (the only one during the entire festival with balls enough to sacrifice an instrument), to the band members destroying the equipment in their grand finale, then getting yelled at by the stagehands, to which XTX gave a simple “f*ck off” (in those words).
The next highlight was overhearing a baoan go, “eh? 他从哪儿出来的?” when headliner Tricky left the stage mid-set with his band and vocalist singing “Karmacoma,” then moments later being seen gliding atop the hands of the crowd, cigarette in mouth and looking completely relaxed.
The last highlight happened minutes later, when Tricky jumped back on stage, but not before dragging 30 or so members of the audience up with him for a frenzied mosh session on stage.
All in all, nothing went disastrously bad, but quite a few things could be improved. As the organizers plan to host the festival annually for the next ten years, hopefully this initiation will bring a few valuable lessons.
A few pros and cons to be noted:
Pros
Cons
When all is said and done, there’s nothing really broken here that can’t be fixed. A little experience and a lot more organization could make this music festival a highlight for many summers to come. The local lineup (though it could have used Carsick Cars, Hanggai and Long Shen Dao), was quite substantial, and getting Tricky and The Soundtrack of Our Lives together on one night to perform in the middle of rural China was also quite impressive. It will be exciting to see what InMusic does in the future.
Until next year …
Great synopsis of the festival. One activity worth mentioning is stargazing. Throw a blanket on the ground, listen to the tunes and watch for shooting stars. The festival coincides with Perseids meteor shower which will peak Aug 12,13 in 2010.
Bus is the only way to go. The people I talked to who took the train were traumatized by the ordeal which took longer than the bus anyway.
Next year maybe the organizers can:
* Put the headliners on Saturday not Sunday for those poor people who have to show up at an office Monday morning.
* The place was strewn with garbage. Place more garbage cans around. Urge people not to be slobs. Hire more cleanup staff and less security. After all do we really need 1 security guard for every 2 attendees?
* The bathrooms were a 10 minute walk away and had no working sinks.
I did have a good time and if the problems can be fixed it'll be a great festival to look forward to each year.
If you are interested in joining True Run Media, please feel free to contact our team.