A rocky road for music festival goers

Outdoor music festivals are also a perfect fit for Chinese public holidays, which the government extended in 1999 to stimulate domestic demand. Most music festivals are held during the May Day or National Day holidays, the peak travel times.

As a result, music festivals appeared in less-developed areas, such as the Snow Mountain Music Festival in Yunnan and the Gegentala Grassland Rock Music Festival in Inner Mongolia.

Cui Jian, dubbed the "father of Chinese rock 'n' roll" appears in almost every rock festival in the country. [China Daily]

The growth is due to different places' efforts to boost their local tourism industries. This year, Zhenjiang, a lesser-known city in Jiangsu province, invited - and won the right to host - Beijing's Midi Music Festival, in a bid to build up its popularity as a tourist attraction.

The real estate business, one of the most profitable industries in China, is also trying to make use of music festivals to promote its products. Poly 198 Tulip Park for example, the venue for the upcoming Zebra Music Festival in Chengdu, is a project of the Poly Real Estate Group. Yosemite Green Square in Zhenjiang, where the Midi Music Festival will be held, is part of another property project.

As demand grows for more music festivals, however, their core attraction - the music - seems to be lagging behind. Festivals by and large feature the same bands, most of them from Beijing, so the line-ups often overlap and many Beijing bands fly from city to city at these times.

Cui Jian, the "father of Chinese rock 'n' roll", does not have many opportunities to play big venues other than at festival time and then, almost every new festival has to have him on the bill. This year he has decided to play at the Midi Music Festival.

"For a rock fan, it must be exciting to see Cui live for the first time, but after you see him many times, what his performance brings you is visual fatigue and boredom," says Sun Mengjin, a Shanghai-based music critic. "It's not Cui's problem but as more and more music festivals appear in China, there is still a limited number of musicians for festivals to choose from."

Many festivals have not been specialized enough to focus on one genre of music. As a result rock and pop often share the same stage. For example, at the Zebra Music Festival, punk group Brain Failure and "emocore" band Subs will perform side by side with Taiwan pop trio S.H.E and Liu Liyang, an idol for young girls and winner of the Super Girl reality competition.

Liang believes this shows that music festivals are still in their initial stage of development here, just as 20 years ago singers of Western standards, traditional Chinese folk songs and pop used to compete for the same awards at the CCTV Young Singers' Competition. As organizers try to attract more people, however, the mixed festival program is perhaps their best choice now.

"Most people came because there was a big party going on - some didn't even know who was performing on stage but still had fun," Liu Xi says of last year's Lake Festival.

Another problem festivals face is the sometimes-unsupportive attitude by government, which keeps a wary eye on large-scale events that might lead to unexpected incidents.

Although one of the most established festivals in China, the Midi Music Festival still struggles to adjust to the government's preferred schedule. In many cases, the government doesn't issue its approval until late in the day, making it difficult for organizers to confirm arrangements with performers, some of whom are from abroad. It was exactly this uncertainty that led to the cancellation of last year's Beijing Pop Festival.

"In China, the government's attitude is still a very important factor," says Zhang Fan, founder and director of the Midi Music Festival. "Now the governments of more places are discovering that a music festival is not only harmless but also contributes to the place's publicity and cultural life. This may help the growth of music festivals in China."

Even governmental support cannot guarantee a festival's success, however. Most organizers find it hard to make ends meet due to their lack of experience. Some festivals, like the Erdos Grassland Rock Music Festival in 2007, claimed it would become an annual event but it was never held again.

"I want to tell other festival organizers not to expect too much from a festival," says Zhang. "I think we (Midi) and 'Modern Sky' are the only two who don't lose money."

Such caution is not evident right now. More and more outdoor music festivals are popping up in various parts of this huge country and organizers appear buoyed by people's readiness to give them a try.

This is just what Liu expects. "Chinese people have so much enthusiasm but not that many ways to let it out," he says.