The first InMusic festival concludes with mixed responses

Hundreds of people camping out in tents at the Zhangbei InMusic Festival.

By Wang Yu

Following three days’ of blasting rock ‘n’ roll tunes on Zhangbei grassland, the first year of the InMusic Festival came to an end. However, the fesal’s reception was mixed, receiving as muh complaining as it did praise.

The concert series, which kicked off last Friday afternoon peaked with the punk band Subs’s performance. The band nver waivered in raising the audience’s energy and passion until lead singer, Kangmao, was prevented by confused security guards from leaping off-stage and body surfing.

The bands Rebuilding the Rights of Statues and the popular New Pants also helped build the crowd’s momentum. The pop and rock star Xu Wei performed the finale to crowds of adoring fans.

More people arrived on Saturday, however, that was when problems on stage became apparent. The sound check began late and took so long that the show was delayed for three hours.

Fortunately, the bands did not lose their patience. The charming Fu Han, lead singer of Queen Sea Big Shark, knew how to cheer up the listeners with her wild rock antics. Then there was Joyside’s  1970s style singer, Bianyuan, moving the massive crowds with his saturnine voice. The reputable Zuoxiao Zuhou,while more of an artist than a singer or musician, wowed them with “Zuoxiao time,” the highlight of Day Two.

It was 3 am when Zhang Xuan, the pop singer from Taiwan finished her performance. But traffic quickly became another problem. The official shuttles were too few to take the audience back to Beijing. Sun Yi, a freelance photographer, was left in the venue and had to stay the night in a friend’s tent. Some others had to rent private buses to Zhangbei county and then look for hotels, which took advantage of the chance to price gouge the crows..

“We drove our own car hre which took us about six hours. The audience members who took the shuttle took even longer,” said Cai Jingzhou, a music fan who joined the audience with his colleague from a sport company. “I haveo say the organization is so unprofessional. Some people drove their cars out of the park area near the crowd and there was no one to stop them. Think about how dangerous that would be if they were driving drunk?”

Many chose to camp in the venue but their preparations proved insufficient. Nighttime on the grassland is cold and there was little provided to help people stay warm. The few public toilets were far from the camp.

But a huge number of fans stayed. The grunge rocker, Xie Tianxiao, was one of the best of the last day. Xie finished an already dramatic set by smashing his guitar in true rock n’ roll fashion. When the Brtish Trip-hop giant Tricky went on stage at midnight, there were fewer than 1,000 people left. But his brilliant performance left the audience enraptured.

Some angry audience members started to complain about the bad organization on the Internet even before the festival came to its end. Li Hongjie, chief editor of InMusic, the festival’s organizer, admitted that the preparation and organization could be improved upon. Hoever, he also explained that the audience should prepare for camping like the music fans do at outdoor festivals in Europe and North America. Zhangbei county, he argued, was too small to offer accommodation for tens of thousand of people.

“It was quite hectic, but I had fun anyway. There’s nothing really broken here that can’t be fixed. A little experience and a lot more organization could make this music festival a highligfor many summers to come,” said Lisa Liang, music editor of a local English magazine The Beijinger.

As many new music festivals have been established in recent years, local governments are also realizing that hosting such events is a good method of self-promotion. However, festivals exhibiting true signs of professionalism are still rare.