UPDATE: Modern Sky have just released a statement on their Douban.
In May 2009, Midi Festival decamped from Beijing and set up shop in their traditional national holiday berth in a town in Jiangsu province called Zhenjiang. The festival was a success and was the first of many times over the last few years that China’s more famous festivals and festival organizers were invited to provincial towns to attract attention and tourism. We predicted this back in 2009 and so it has come to pass, with government funding making up the majority of the 100 or so festivals that have sprung up in the last couple of years.
Midi did it’s job pretty well, drawing a huge amount of attention to the town that was previously most famous for the manufacture of vinegar, with two pretty decent festivals by all accounts (we didn’t make it to either).
So we were surprised when Midi officially announced on Weibo yesterday that they wouldn’t be doing a 2011 version, despite the fact that all systems were go until a week ago. There is plenty of mud being slung on various Chinese SNS/ forums, and apparently Midi will make a formal announcement after their Rizhao festival in early August. Miserable Faith have made their thoughts plain on Weibo too. What have you heard?