And so Modern Sky confirm the rumours. No real surprises, with nightly headliners being:
the Futureheads, Shonen Knife, Radio 4
and most amusing is the fact that seminal 70’s punk band the Buzzcocks will be playing the 60th birthday celebrations of China’s beloved Communist Party. For this is the only reason that Modern Sky are able to get the festival approved during such a sensitive time – the Modern Sky Festival is a major part of the celebrations.
Some things to note.
- The festival finally has a nice, slick looking website. 2009’s version is so much more pro than anything that has gone before. Nice.
- The prices have almost doubled since last year. It will be interesting to see how the traditionally price sensitive Chinese will react to a daily price of 120RMB and 4 days at 320RMB
- Will Modern Sky be able to persuade their new hosts at Chaoyang Park to abandon the 30m “Golden Circle” that meant the crowd could never get within shouting distance of the main stage during the Beijing Pop Festival?
- The festival will only be one single stage, with another free stage outside the ticketed area which will feature the younger and less well known bands.
All in all, it looks like some compromises have been made in order to secure the venue. The lineup is definitely a step up, with strength in depth (although Radio 4? Surely they haven’t done anything since their very moderate 2003 album – sorry, just looked: they followed up in 2006), but there isn’t anything to get the pulses really racing. We hope they wlll step the production up this year to fit with the rest of the festival.
And beware, if you want to save 20RMB a day, there are only 4,000 advance tickets available.