INTRO 2011: Ideas Need To Reach Out
For their third consecutive edition of the INTRO Beijing Electronic Music Festival, the Acupuncture team couldn’t have chosen a better day in terms of weather, that one variable which is always out of anyone’s control. The weather gods imparted their grace on all of Beijing’s party-goers, as INTRO kicked off in the afternoon on 21 May for two very sunny, windless days of ecstatic raving. Spirits were high and scantily clad people were numerous. Upon arriving, I gazed smilingly at some euphorically head-banging silhouettes drenched from head to toe: these people had put the fountain near the Electro stage to good use. This year – as always – the organizers had boasted that 20000 people were to gather in a 46,000 square meters area, with a total of more than 80 artists from China and abroad playing on three stages. Having changed the venue very last-minute from Tongzhou Canal Park to it’s trusted location in 751 D-Park (798 art district) to avoid the same ticketing and drinks problems reported at this year’s edition of Strawberry Festival, Acupuncture had made all preparations for a memorable 2011 edition of INTRO.
Acupuncture had notified on their website that tickets should best be purchased in advance. Ironically, or maybe logically, problems with ticketing still arose: those who were on the guest list had to validate their tickets before three in the afternoon, which meant dreadfully long queues and undoubtedly a fair amount of latecomers who couldn’t make it into the venue in time.
In spite of INTRO’s wonderfully sounding ethos of ‘ideas reaching out’, we were clearly not meant to reach out beyond the fences of 751 D-Park for booze. Leaving the premises meant having to purchase a new ticket to get back in. However, bag-checking at the main entrance was rather random, so those with a confident enough stride and nothing – except maybe a bottle of baijiu – to lose, probably had no troubles getting their drink on.
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As for drinks and food available on-site, small tents offered a limited amount of soft-drinks, while ABSOLUT had a drink stand carefully tucked away inside a factory building on the left of the main stage, which barely anyone knew about. It offered mixed vodka drinks, served in cute though impossible to handle re-closable bags (especially if you needed to hold more than 3 at the same time). Apart from these, a tiny bar overseeing a patch of grass adjacent to the ‘Welcome’ stage offered lukewarm beers and hot-dogs. Not surprisingly, all of the above got sold out way before the predicted ending time. Thus, one may reflect on the immediate purpose of the venue shift (apart from 798 obviously being much easier to reach). As with the Strawberry fluke, no free water was available at INTRO. A quick observation of the site revealed a lack of standby medical personnel. While I – still very sober but determined to not stay it – went to purchase some vodka’s, I witnessed a young guy faint and drop to the ground three times within a minute or so, with only some fellow drink-buyers to assist him. No degree of optimism could lead one to believe that China’s “largest outdoor electronic music festival” could run out of alcohol at 8 o’clock by mistake. It seems to be the result of careful rationing on behalf of the authorities. However, getting affordable drinks out of the equation during a very hot and sweaty event like this, can hardly be considered a clever move.
Once on-site, you had the feeling you had entered a comfy party-concession, nestled in between rusty steam ducts, massive gas cylinders, transformer-like cranes and chimneys towering over and offering shade to those who needed it. Entertainment was provided for by poi-swingers, stick-, ball- and pin-jugglers, unicylists and the likes. Many party-goers sported INTRO T-shirts and foamy Acupuncture Records hipster spectacles. One very unconventional character got her picture taken by many: a fairly old lady was seen partying it up with the youngsters and got referred to as INTRO’s ‘hottest auntie’.
Production-wise, opinions are bound to differ. The LED-wall on the main stage made for a well-dosed though not overly spectacular light show. The DJ line-up included some big names, but was a bit one-dimensional at times, a flaw which also characterized INTRO’s previous editions. The crowd at main stage reacted as enthusiastically to international names like Josh Wink and Paul Ritch as it did to local Acupuncture household names and lesser known DJ’s at the ‘side stages’. Drum’n’bass afficionado’s got treated to a down right bash on the second day, with local collective the Syndicate occupying the stage that had functioned as ‘electro stage’ for the M Agency on the first day. Michael Wright, who took to the Syndicate stage under his alias of Mikey Dee, claimed INTRO was streets ahead of last year in terms of vibe and sound quality. He was “…[glad to hear] syncopated rattling snares and thudding kicks [among the] sometimes minimal/tech house that usually reigns at INTRO”. Indeed, it seems that adding at least one electronic sub-genre made up for previous editions’ lack of musical diversity.
Maxime Bureau, head of The M Agency, which featured prominently on the first day with it’s household line-up, said he considered this year’s edition inferior to last year’s, when the sound set-up was better and drinks were more readily available. Lots of people complained about the sound system not having enough bass and lacking volume (“…if you strayed from the speakers more than 20 meters, you were hard pressed to even get a decent feel of the music”). Bureau discussed this with insiders and concluded that the on-site speakers (a non-specified Chinese brand) were simply not up to par.. Certain DJ’s weren’t fully satisfied with the return they got from their DJ-monitors. According to Bureau, here were several problems with the wiring, which led to some flaws in the DJ-sets, which tended to be a bit mainstream. The afterparty at Star Live (Tango Club) however was host to about 100-150 people who were able to cough up the 100 RMB entrance fee, resulting in a very intimate party where more underground, acid house got played by Josh Wink and the Japanese DJ’s present. “Overall I think that even though it’s a nice festival to have around, the scene might not be entirely ready for an event of this calibre, which you can tell by the lukewarm response to some of the DJ’s”, Bureau expressed with slight hesitance.
Overall, INTRO managed to offer an extremely laid-back space to all those in search of a good time, whether you were an avid electro-listener, a frisbee-player, a secret glow-in-the-dark-make-up-fetishist or simply all of the above. Those who spotted the lady in the wedding dress could conclude that electro is a lifestyle, it allows people to have fun and do things that are a bit out of the ordinary, i.e. wear fluorescent track suits and hot pants, as done by many at INTRO. It made you wonder where all of these colourful people hung out during a regular day in Beijing, and more specifically what their day-jobs are. With a general feeling of intimacy in the air, none seemed to seemed to take offence at the party ending at 10 o’clock sharp, although being cordoned out by a pre-recorded, official sounding female voice could be considered a massive vibe-killer. But then again, this is China, and it wouldn’t be the same without this very Chinese touch at the end. INTRO over and outro.