Yugongyishan holds concert for Haiti quake victims

By Annie Wei

More than 400 people crowded into Yugongyishan Wednesday for Hope for Haiti, a charity concert that raised funds for Haiti’s earthquake victims .

Performers included bands The Verse, Afrokoko Roots, Skarving Orchestra, MeiWenti and Blackie & Slide. DJs also played powerful blends of Afro and Caribbean music like reggae, drum and bass, funk, soul and afrobeat.

Many of the attendees were foreigners. Alice Lyons, 35, a math teacher at an international school, said she found out about the event though email.

The concert was organized by Funk+Fever, a Beijing-based group with members from Germany, the US and the UK, which wants to bring more musical diversity to the Chinese capital by helping popularize music like funk and soul.

The 50-yuan entrance and 10 percent of the bar’s income for the evning was donated to Partners in Health, a nongovernment organization that has been working in Haiti for 20 years.

On January 12, a magnitude-7.2 earthquake hit the Carribean nation, killing more than 200,000 and injuring 300,000, according to the latest government data.

Since the capital Port-au-Prince was hit by the devastating quake, many groups around Beijing have been helping raise money to support rehabilitation efforts in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.