Editor’s note: a bit delayed, but this piece is as much about the general state of branding and commercial presence at large outdoor music festivals as it is about any specific event. It was written after attending Midi 2012 in Shanghai.
China’s Midi Festival is a crazy beast. The first time we attended was in May 2006; it was our first sighting of the paradox that was modern China: a park full of rock and metal fans stomping and moshing to mohawked and dreadlocked bands who in turn were singing about those issues close to their hearts and sensitive to the country surrounding this little enclave in time and space. It took our collective breaths away.
Midi is the Glastonbury of China in so many ways: the fans who attend Midi are a coalescence of the disaffected 90’s generation of punks and rockers who worked in the margins of the margins because of a heartfelt desire to change things. The people that come really contribute to the vibe of the festival rather than expecting to be passively entertained. The merchandise is better, the people are crazier, there are more smiles, more impromptu jam sessions, more hugging and general random acts of kindness than anywhere else in China.
The other thing that Glastonbury and Midi share is a generous and powerful gesture to give up the massively lucrative “billboards” that are their respective mainstages, and instead give them to good causes. In Glastonbury’s case, the charities Wateraid and Greenpeace have pride of place on the Pyramid Stage. In Midi’s case the Tang Stages in 2011 and 2012 plus the overall festival VI (programmes, flyers, posters) were devoted to causes that the organizers consider important: in 2011 the eradication of the Chinese trade in bear bile in, and in 2012, drawing attention to urban China’s dangerous pollution levels: PM2.5.
[this was true at the time of writing: in fact, in 2012 Midi did succumb and sold main stage branding to Vans for the Beijing festival].
We’d like to put it out there that WE THINK THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME. We don’t know of any other examples of powerful social movements in China using their influence to stand up to some of the systemic problems that exist here. (We would love some comments to share what inevitable others are out there)
Glastonbury and Midi aren’t about just music: it was actually more fun just to take a wander into the Fields of Avalon for an afternoon and check out the weird and wacked out contributions people were making to the festival, not in the pursuit of money, but for the purpose of inspiring and sharing. Glastonbury was a kind of kibbutz, where there was a barter economy of sorts. In the 00’s, while Glastonbury was being corporatized and sanitized by the Mean Fiddler (the group was brought in in 2003 to address safety issues due to overwhelming popularity and loose security), the community mantle seems to have passed to Burning Man.
In international festivals at least, this is the kind of vibe that brands try to replicate in their activations., It is a spirit of love, fun and community that brands and agencies work so hard to bottle, sell, harness and become.
It is unfortunate that the brand initiatives that we’ve seen over the last few weekends at Midi and Strawberry all failed to create any kind of real engagement but is it really so difficult? We think not.
[again, we weren’t there to experience Vans at Midi Beijing – we heard good things about that one]
Get creative. If you think that slapping some logos around the festival grounds and having hot girrrrrlls in short skirts handing out samplers is all you have to do once you are at the festival, then think again. You want to showcase your product? Well, you could just have some samples around the place and bore everyone senseless (if anyone actually spends the time to come and visit your un-engaging display)
OR you could get creative and focus on useful, entertaining and unique experiences where consumers can actually engage with your brand and the products you want them to focus on.
Sounds simple, but why are so many brands getting it wrong. Consumers are smart don’t ya know.