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The big ticket
Woodstock, Reading, Burning Man, Glastonbury, Lollapalooza... To music fans and festivalgoers the world over, these are the monster of rock, evoking memories of summers of love and legendary performances by musical greats.
Thus far, the world's most populous country has also played host to some of the world's most sparsely populated popular and alternative music festivals. A quick mental list of major music festivals yields but a few locally recognizable names: the one-hit wonder on Yunnan's Snow Mountain, the Qingdao Beer Festival, MIDI, and the now-defunct Heineken concert series. This may not be surprising, given the relatively recent development of Chinese alternative music (see box, page TK), as well as the hurdles to gaining official approvals for large gatherings. And, as with everything else in China, the situation is slowly changing. Judging by the list of concerts and festivals planned for the summer and fall, 2004 looks to be a watershed year for Chinese music festivals. Large shows are planned for Qingdao, Beijing, Shanghai, Ningxia and other cities, meaning Chinese mainland concertgoers will have more options this year than ever before. Add in increased professionalism among concert organizers, more clearly defined official approval procedures, and receptive audiences, and music events are an entertainment opportunity waiting to happen. The only problem is that people say that every year. So why should this year be different to the past?
In the early 1990s, musicians and concert organizers found themselves with new opportunities to perform in public and to promote the types of music that they liked. The rapid pace of reforms in the Shenzhen made it a particularly fertile testing ground for a new brand of Chinese music (see Timeline, TK). In 1991, Guo Chuanlin, one of the founding members of Black Panther and later manager of the band, helped to organize a five-band rock concert at the Shenzhen Gymnasium. Guo negotiated successfully with the local authorities and sponsors for permission to include rock acts on a concert bill; in March 1991, music fans in Shenzhen turned out to watch Tang Dynasty, Black Panther, Huxi (TK Translation - Suffocation?) and other acts perform on stage. Large concerts in other cities followed apace. Things progressed quietly until 1995, when, for a variety of reasons (rock fatigue, fickle audiences, market changes, or more conservative cultural policies) large stadium concerts stopped for a time. Chinese musicians and independent concert organizers returned to smaller venues, scaled-down dreams and adopted humbler ambitions. By the year 2000, small-scale music events were begun, including the foundation of the MIDI music school's festival in Beijing, as well as the ongoing (but now-defunct) Heineken Beat music festival. Last summer, SARS dealt a blow to what looked like a great summer line-up, canceling the MIDI festival, Rolling Stones, and numerous other concerts. This year has brought new challenges, with official concerns over crowd safety heightened by a trampling incident in Miyun during the lantern festival that left TK dead. According to the MIDI School's Wang Mengyun, organizers are considering relocating the festival to a larger, 30,000-square-meter outdoor venue in the capital's student district of Haidian. Negotiations are still underway, but the school is cooperating with local authorities and the district government to work out a plan that will allow the MIDI Festival to continue to prosper and grow, while maintaining its free-spirited and not-for-profit atmosphere. Growing pains experienced by MIDI concert organizers are in many ways emblematic of the challenges facing China's music festivals. Concert organizer and club owner Zhang Youdai sees parallels in the development of Chinese festivals today and the great American and European music festivals of the past. The best festivals, he notes, are the ones that developed organically, such as the Love Parade, which started out as a small informal event after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1989, that was attended by 150 partiers, and morphed into an annual one-weekend techno festival held at Berlin's Tiergarten Park, playing to crowds of over 1 million. Chinese festivals are unlikely to grow at such a dizzying pace, but the issues of increased attendance has certainly raised new safety concerns for concert organizers and local authorities. "These safety concerns are legitimate," says Colin Chinnery, Arts Director for the British Council in Beijing. "How is an ambulance going to get to the front of the stage in the event of an emergency? How do you train your invigilators? Exit routes, escape routes, fire and safety...All of these different things have to be looked at as soon as you get beyond a certain crowd level." Until those structures are in place, China's music scene is likely to be characterized by periodic cancellations by local authorities unwilling to risk serious accidents on their watch. Another challenge is the sheer logistics of organizing a large music festival or concert tour in a country with underdeveloped concert infrastructure, particularly in rural areas, and a maze of local ordinances that vary from county to county. One experienced concert organizer recalled a recent meeting between Chinese and overseas concert promoters during which he admitted that there is no single logistics company equipped to deal with the requirements for handling a Chinese concert tour of a first-tier overseas act. "They weren't very happy to hear that," he admits, "but it was my honest opinion. I think we still have a lot to learn." Cost and sponsorship is a perennial concern among Chinese festival organizers, and while certain industries - breweries, TV stations, property developers, and record labels, to name but a few - have been supportive of alternative music, others have displayed a decided preference for mainstream events. Poly Plaza's TK TK notes that many large companies "still consider rock music a bit too weird, too fringe, too alternative to want to sponsor" concerts. And when they're pitted against mainstream crowd pleasers such as Cats, David Copperfield, and Pavarotti - all acts that can guarantee audience numbers in the tens of thousands - the math becomes much harder. And then, there's the issue of box office receipts. Lower ticket prices for rock and alternative music events and poor turnout means these festivals rarely turn a profit. Factor in the practice of giving up to 50 per cent of tickets as gifts to sponsors, media groups, and local officials, and the box office sustains quite a serious bite. The much-touted show by British band Suede in Spring Festival 2003 wrapped up with losses of YY600,000. The Snow Mountain music festival - promoted as China's annual Woodstock event, bankrolled by rock star Cui Jian and friends - is rumored to have cost organizers a pretty penny. Even the three critically acclaimed Morcheeba concerts resulted in a disappointing turnout in certain cities - and tickets for these were subsidized as part of an effort by the British Council to promote the UK arts scene. A free concert in Chengdu by the band drew full-house crowds of 8000 fans per night, however. The acid test for how far China's alternative music scene has come will be this year. Numerous events are planned, with many featuring large, outdoor concerts. Most incorporate Chinese and overseas acts. Helan Shanxia, in Yinchuan, Ningxia, will be the location for an outdoor music festival (August 6-8) that organizer Huang Liaoyuan describes as a "retrospective of Chinese rock," featuring acts such as Cui Jian, Tang Dynasty, Black Panther, He Yong, Zhang Chu, Cobra, and Ziyue. Newer acts, such as Secondhand Roses, Thin Man, Tongue, and Bu Yi will also be appearing, and the festival is scheduled to coincide with the opening of a rock and roll museum in Ningxia. Promoters say they are considering laying on a special "rock train" to transport festivalgoers from Beijing and other major cities. Huang adds that he plans another festival for next year, which will have "more of a focus on young and up-and-coming bands." In late August, Shanghai's Dongfeng Luzhou will host its own - more mainstream - event, Qingchun Zhonghua Fengxia, a large outdoor concert featuring 26 bands, including acts from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, as well as Japan, South Korea, and Europe. Targeted at the youth market, tickets are expected to be affordable, although prices are yet to be announced. Late August will also see the Qingdao Beer Festival, featuring nightly free concerts by a variety of artists. Other planned events include the 5th Annual MIDI Music Festival, scheduled for October 1. The school has lined up 45 bands, including seasoned veterans of past MIDI shows and newer acts, to perform in the three-day festival. Although the concert has always been held on the grounds of the MIDI school, this year it may relocate to a 30,000 square meter park in the Haidian District. Details and ticket information will be announced at a later date. Add to the list, the British Council say they too are planning an outdoor music festival for October. Colin Chinnery, currently organizing the event, says that it is an opportunity to showcase British music and to promote exchange between British and Chinese musicians and audiences. "We will have Chinese bands alongside the British bands," says Chinnery. "That's a very important aspect of it." He adds that the council is planning to bring "a well-known and very recognizable" British act to perform in the festival, although he declined to name names. But if even a portion of these planned events successfully come off, it could mean that 2004 may well become the year that Chinese music finally took center stage. |
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