And as if Beijing needed another festival, they get another three. The mid-autumn holiday is 22-24 September is now playing host to two brand new festivals:
- Music Funhill: co-organized by the Fangshan local government, a local PR company and InMusic, who were responsible for the InMusic Festival in Zhangbei. Sponsored by Swarovski Elements (in itself, an interesting tie up) and featuring some pretty high profile international artists: Ian Brown, the Concretes, Mr. Hudson. This is a welcome change from the near identical lineups that have plagued most other festivals over the last 2 years.
- The DreamValley festival. Details of this one are less clear. It will be held somewhere between Beijing and Tianjin. You can find tickets HERE. France’s Emilie Simon headlines.
Plus, for some reason known only to higher powers, yet another festival has decided that the October holiday week in Beijing is a great time to go head to head with the established Modern Sky Festival. Pilot Music have thrown down the gauntlet, with their World Cities festival. It will be held in Chaoyang Park, which Modern Sky has vacated since last year to return to its Haidian home. The lineup has been confirmed (of a fashion) with a more rock/ emo/ pop punk feel to it than some of the other festivals on offer. Artists include:
齐秦(Qi Qin)、郑钧(Zheng jun)、ROONEY、ILL NINO、老狼(Lao Lang)、反光镜(Reflector)、痛仰(Miserable Faith)、扭机(Twisted machine) MEN ( JD Samson and Johanna Fateman from LE TIGRE )
It will be interesting to see how Pilot will fare. History suggests that Beijing can more than cope with a hipster and a rock festival over the same holiday period. Will history repeat itself? It seems like a good shout and again, brings some variety to an increasingly stale set of festival lineups, so good luck to them.
