If you haven’t heard by now, we’ll reproduce the official statement from the INTRO Festival organisers, who have been left with no choice but to pull the plug on this year’s edition. It’s pretty unfortunate; INTRO is a real home-grown independent fest that does a lot to support local artists. Big up the Acupuncture / INTRO crew. We hope it wasn’t too expensive and haste ye back…
INTRO 2014 was planned to be held in Shougang Steel Works on 24th May, 2014, however we regret to announce that due to a series of problems with venue management the festival has been cancelled for this year.
This festival has always been immensely difficult to execute in Beijing due to its proximity to the city centre. We have always felt that INTRO is a festival that should be held within Beijing city and should be held in a venue that represents INTRO’s core values. Since being forced out of the 798 area, we found Shougang Steel Works to be the perfect location. However, this year was so unexpected that we discussed with venue management several times,and ready striking an agreement with venue management on May 5th finally,but this agreement was overruled by the overall leader of the venue compound.
As many of you may know, We have since tried to relocate the festival, but it is almost impossible to rush through licenses for such an event at this late stage. As a result, we have decided it best if the whole event was cancelled and we will start preparations for next year’s show immediately.
We’re extremely disappointed with this outcome and have worked hard until the last minute to avoid this eventuality. Despite these set-backs we will not give up trying to put on events of this magnitude and we will be back, stronger than ever in 2015.
Thanks for your understanding and support.
Best,
The INTRO team.
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