During the May Day holiday Beijing hosts a number of music festivals including the Strawberry Festival and Midi Music Festival. Music Festivals in China have suffered some criticism over the years due to cancellations, poor sound, lack of alcohol and super early ending times. We westerns are used to full scale amazing festivals, partying for two or three days, and enjoying a line up that is bound to impress. However if you forget your previous experiences of festivals and embrace China's music festivals for what they are, they actually don't disappoint!
Myself, Jordan and a few friends went to the second day of the Strawberry Festival. The line up included Lenka, Pony Pony Run Run and Queen Sea Big Shark as well as a number of DJ's and other Chinese and Foreign bands. Having only heard of Lenka we wondered what the day had in store for us. Tickets were easy to get at the gate, there were no queues and we got through security with our water bottles filled with vodka! It was a glorious day as we walked through Tongzhou Canal Park, checking out the little stalls filled with handbags, t-shirts and stickers. We had our faces painted at the Tuborg Beer stand, but unfortunately didn't get any beer. We walked around looking for the beer tent but were disappointed when we realised there was no beer tent, the only beverages to be served was water, coke and ice tea. Good thing we had vodka! We got ourselves some strawberry smoothies and found a spot on the hill between the School of Rock stage and the main stage. Basking in the sunshine we listened to a Chinese band rock out and watched some interesting characters walk by. The stages were so close together you could sit at a certain point and watch two bands at the same time....good value for money and you don't miss anything!
As the afternoon wore on we stumbled upon an American band called Wiretree who were pretty great, we later ran into them at the pizza stand and had a good chat about China. We watched kids doing some crazy dancing, threw a frisbee around, got some free pink hats and wigs, had many photos taken with random people and even watched a fashion show. We found a woman selling beer and soon we were back on the hill watching some crazy Chinese woman rock out on stage. We made our way down to the main stage to watch Lenka. Unlike other festivals were people are usually cheering, going a bit mental and maybe falling about due to too much warm beer, the crowd was pretty tame. But we didn't let this stop us from cheering at the top of our voices and acting like idiots....
Lenka was pretty good, the sound didn't fail and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. For someone we did not know much about she proved to be a hit. The festival ended promptly at 9pm and we followed the crowd towards the exit. Overall it had been a pretty great day, the weather had been amazing, the music pretty good, the style very interesting and strawberry vodka smoothies are my new favourite thing!
Myself, Jordan and a few friends went to the second day of the Strawberry Festival. The line up included Lenka, Pony Pony Run Run and Queen Sea Big Shark as well as a number of DJ's and other Chinese and Foreign bands. Having only heard of Lenka we wondered what the day had in store for us. Tickets were easy to get at the gate, there were no queues and we got through security with our water bottles filled with vodka! It was a glorious day as we walked through Tongzhou Canal Park, checking out the little stalls filled with handbags, t-shirts and stickers. We had our faces painted at the Tuborg Beer stand, but unfortunately didn't get any beer. We walked around looking for the beer tent but were disappointed when we realised there was no beer tent, the only beverages to be served was water, coke and ice tea. Good thing we had vodka! We got ourselves some strawberry smoothies and found a spot on the hill between the School of Rock stage and the main stage. Basking in the sunshine we listened to a Chinese band rock out and watched some interesting characters walk by. The stages were so close together you could sit at a certain point and watch two bands at the same time....good value for money and you don't miss anything!
As the afternoon wore on we stumbled upon an American band called Wiretree who were pretty great, we later ran into them at the pizza stand and had a good chat about China. We watched kids doing some crazy dancing, threw a frisbee around, got some free pink hats and wigs, had many photos taken with random people and even watched a fashion show. We found a woman selling beer and soon we were back on the hill watching some crazy Chinese woman rock out on stage. We made our way down to the main stage to watch Lenka. Unlike other festivals were people are usually cheering, going a bit mental and maybe falling about due to too much warm beer, the crowd was pretty tame. But we didn't let this stop us from cheering at the top of our voices and acting like idiots....
Lenka was pretty good, the sound didn't fail and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. For someone we did not know much about she proved to be a hit. The festival ended promptly at 9pm and we followed the crowd towards the exit. Overall it had been a pretty great day, the weather had been amazing, the music pretty good, the style very interesting and strawberry vodka smoothies are my new favourite thing!