This is a bit of an annual procession: Radar peeps attend as many festivals as possible over the national holiday in May, return to the office with sore feet and ears, and spend a week ruminating over what happened.
We collectively attended all the big boys, alongside some of the newer recruits. May is becoming a crazy time for festivals all over China with no less than 3 major festivals in each of the capitals of Shanghai and Beijing during this shorter-than-short national holiday.
This saturation leads to difficulties, mostly surrounding a lack of qualified production operatives. For example, one of our production partners in Shanghai was responsible for 15 festival stages across 4 different sites. This is concerning with regards to safety – we imagine we are only one serious accident away from a festival lockdown in China. Now more than ever, it is imperative to use staging, production and security companies that are qualified and experienced in this kind of work.
Looking back, our key takeouts centre around the consumer experience. 5 years ago when festivals were relatively new in China, the main protagonists were all relatively inexperienced. Ticket prices were low, and sponsors thin on the ground. As a festival attendee, you could forgive – to a degree – substandard production and a less-than-wonderful experience, because the bar hadn’t really been set.
In 2014, however, the game has fundamentally changed. Ticket prices have risen (there was a lot of discussion when Strawberry announced a daily ticket price of 180RMB – up from 120RMB over the last 2 years), while all of the festivals are plastered from head to tail in advertising from brand partners. It is becoming increasingly obvious that festival imperatives and challenges are diversifying: revenue from sales is just the beginning.
This correspondent remembers going to Midi in 2006, and in comparison to both Strawberry and Midi this year, there was simply more love, care and attention lavished on the editions of yesteryear. There were some particularly harsh outbursts of social media chatter this year, which suggest fans today are not getting value for money. Festival goers (in tier 1 cities at least) are beginning to wonder why their fun days out are not so fun anymore. Crazy long queues to get in, crazy long queues for water, beer and toilets, crazy long queues for transport, overcrowding on site, and poor production all featured high on Weibo and WeChat. Of course China brings with it its own challenges – it’s basically impossible to avoid crowds on holiday weekends. But there are controls which can be put in place – conscientious decision making that balances profitability with enjoyment.
What follows below is a series of reviews from some of the festivals that we attended (see a separate entry for our China Music Valley 2014 review).
Midi Madness (Shanghai):
We knew what we were getting ourselves into when we resolved to catch the final day of Midi. We’d mentally prepared for the worst. Well the pictures say it all really. The Midi organisers did what they could, but NATURE. The mud, in reality, did little to curb our enthusiasm.
Midi scaled back considerably from their 9-stage behemoth of a fest that landed at this site last October. This year, they provided three stages of entertainment:
- The MINI-Tang Stage (main, owned by the Mini car brand)
- UN Stage (MIDI school / eclectic / local)
- Yuan Stage (electronic)
Of course there was a strong brand presence. There was a MINI installation stage-right toward the back. JanSport had a pseudo stage/shop installation pumping dance music. It was the only source of entertainment to be had at one point while Suede went about their 45-minute soundcheck. We’re not sure it added much to the festival experience but needless to say some of the fans got involved, leaving the site with ‘JanSport’ emblazoned on their cheeks.
Escape Plan pulled in a hefty crowd; the main stage was full up to the intersecting ‘path’ (place where the ground was still solid) that crossed the site toward the dance stage. Suede was directly after: the majority of the Escape Plan crowd stayed, holding their breath as the band prepared to perform 20-year-old hits. Seeing as you’re basically stuck in a bog at night you’d be damned if you didn’t make the most of it. As the cameras panned across the crowd we counted about 12 and a half laowai, which was ironic, considering Suede were Midi’s answer to getting in a foreign audience.
Last year we highlighted some of the downfalls of the new festival site, and we’re pretty much sticking to our guns. The trek out isn’t so bad, but getting back is a mission. There was a fleet of coaches waiting, but it took 2 hours to queue for a bus ticket at 20元 each (which they ran out of – had to buy from touts!) then another queue to get on the coach.
Not to end on a negative, Midi had some troubles this year but pushed through anyway, bringing together a great showcase of local talents. Reducing the number of stages was definitely a good call in our view. The listening experience at each stage was markedly improved, with sound bleed no longer interfering (as much – thanks JanSport).
A final shout out has to go to the Midi audience. Given the rain, there was still an admirably strong attendance across all three days. Midi fans rock! They make Midi what it is: something like China’s Glastonbury or Bonnaroo.
Supplementary comments from our friends across Beijing / Shanghai
To increase the impartiality of the review and make sure we covered all ground, we reached out to our friends across both cities, soliciting summaries of their experiences.
As far as Shanghai went, we’ve covered pretty much everything with the exception of the fact that indeed, the Mini sponsorship lacked tact. Arguably, re-naming the main stage the “Mini Stage” didn’t communicate a very strong message. One friend went so far as to complain about the font, but we’re not going to go there. Apparently the fried chicken vendor also left much to be desired. Probably selling chicken of the cave.
In Beijing our friends were once again loving the fun atmosphere the (mostly Chinese) audience brings each year. The scenic location complimented the good vibes.
The branding was less overbearing compared to Strawberry, with some brands such as Zippo and Vans fitting in nicely with your typical Midi crowd. f&b options were pretty pricey and surprisingly for the festival’s environmentally-aware background, there didn’t seem to be many bins about.
As far as international acts go, the line-up was a bit lacking. Having said this, if the overall music experience is on the button a reduction in the dependence on foreign bands could be seen as a promising sign. The XTX / Suede conflict wasn’t very welcome, and the main stage was located on a pitched area – grass would have been nice.
The major issue (as in SH) was getting in/out of the site. On Day 1 fans had to walk for miles because of the heavy traffic jams, which forced the buses to take a detour. Furthermore, on the first night there were hundreds of people waiting for buses until 3 or 4am to go back to the city centre.
Strawberry
Whilst Radar contributors were locked in to other business, our birdies reported back on what has probably been the highlight of the year so far. Strawberry returned with a big, bad line-up of acts, but what of the experience as a whole?
Shanghai:
The festival site in Pudong was once again a hit: it’s a great patch. Unfortunately not much of the site could be seen during the first day, due to the crazy turnout. The first day was (seemingly) massively oversold, with people spending a good couple of hours attempting to breach the site entrance. This included those with presales who had to queue to exchange presales for paper tickets, and then queue again to get their tickets processed. Even the hipsters with media passes had to queue, much to their chagrin.
Once inside, any hope of traversing the site was quashed due to the slow moving crowd and later in the day, the installment of guards who were trying to manage the crowd at the main stage by preventing people from entering or leaving. Apparently this almost caused a riot, with fans shouting “退票！退票！(refund).
The swathe of festival attendees of course impacted every element of the festival, most noticeably the f&b offerings. The water apparently ran out before the alcoholic drinks, as expected (and not prepared for) on what was one of the hottest days of the year so far. But of course there’s nothing worse than a no-beer scenario at a festival. No doubt that the Instagram pic we’ve seen floating around of fans graphitizing obscenities on Tuborg branding will haunt this year’s installment.
By now you may have all read about HIM’s China fail. Up in Beijing the stage was buffeted by a sandstorm, and in Shanghai they got side-showed by Maggie Cheung, who everyone was buzzing to see. If we were thirteen-year-old teens with a fixation for pentagrams, we’re sure we’d be disappointed too. After the Maggstr’s set HIM managed to squeeze in 4 songs whilst guards attempted to clear people out of the site (nobody was willing to budge seeing as they’d waited an hour for HIM to get their act together).
The tag line behind the festival “SNS life is rubbish, get a real life!” was a pretty cool concept. Of course the reality was that the festival was run-through with the presence of the major SNS companies, with videos promoting Netease, Kugou, Duomi, Baidu Cloud and Douban playing. Infamous dating app MOMO attempted an interesting “搭讪广场”(hit on square), which got a lot of attention. The use of QR codes by exhibitors was undermined by the lack of connection.
So, how did the festival in Beijing fare?
Beijing:
Similar comments from the Beijing side. There was a healthy mix of Chinese / foreigners in the crowd. But crowd control again was a concern: the festival was obviously understaffed and the queue at the entrance was unwieldy and dis-organized. Apparently the branding was pretty overpowering too, but this is pretty standard by now.
All in all Strawberry got a lot of people excited; too many in fact. The imperative to sell tickets needs to be balanced with the need to guarantee a safe and enjoyable experience for fans – including the youngsters who are trying these fests out for the first time, and those who are making a family trip out of it. Even the metallers who are up for being brutalized in a mosh pit need a bit of space outside the stage to take a time out. Line-up and sound quality stood out as the most appreciated aspects of the fest.
As always, your own comments and experiences are welcome. We look forward to hearing from you all in the comments section.
Other recommended reviews from third parties and friends:
Scottish Mike does Strawberry Shanghai, Day 1
Beijing Daze covers MIDI fest Day 1