Performance permits for 30 international bands have been approved for the ninth annual Midi Modern Music Festival, China’s longest-running outdoor rock festival. But the Shanghai edition of Midi is a no-go.
Midi had planned to expand the event to Shanghai on May 1 and 2, but organizers confirm that the Shanghai Midi Festival has been cancelled.
The Beijing festival will be held May 1-4 at Haidian Park, in the city’s Haidian District. The theme of this year’s festival is “100 Days To Go,” since there are exactly 100 days from May 1 to the beginning of the Beijing Olympic Games.
“We invited over 100 Chinese bands and 30 foreign bands to perform this year,” says festival director Zhang Fan.
Local media reported that Shanghai venue operator Yuyintang, which was planning to hold the local version of Midi in the coastal city’s Tianshan Park, was denied a performance license due to increased government restrictions on the local music scene. In China, all public performances require government approval, and outdoor performances are placed under even higher scrutiny.
After Icelandic singer Bjork declared her support for Tibetan independence during her March 2 concert at the Shanghai International Gymnastics Center, the Ministry of Culture issued a statement saying it “will further tighten controls on foreign artists performing in China in order to prevent similar cases from happening in the future.”
Tickets for the Beijing concerts are available at the gate only, and cost 50 yuan ($7.16) a day or 150 yuan ($21.48) for a four-day pass. Daily attendance at last year’s festival averaged 15,000 people.
