Inmusic brings in buzz Scene from previous Inmusic Festival.( Photo/courtesy of the Inmusic Festival) Music festivals are having a hard mo...
Inmusic brings in buzz
Scene from previous Inmusic Festival.( Photo/courtesy of the Inmusic Festival)
Music festivals are having a hard month. Scandals hit Chengdu recently after organizers of the Big Love Music Festival disappeared with millions of dollars, record label Modern Sky has canceled plans for its annual Beijing festival in August and dates for Midi's Blue Festival in Rizhao, Shandong Province are still unannounced.
For now, this leaves the Inmusic Festival alone in the Zhangbei grasslands to redeem the festival season.
This may be disconcerting for some, as every summer since 2009, woes about the three-day rock festival in the grasslands have made headlines: The lack of green and clouds of dust earned the festival its first moniker "Dirty Fest," heavy rainfall and mud diminished crowds the following year, while hours of standstill traffic killed the buzz in 2011.
However, fans keep making the 250-kilometer pilgrimage from the capital to the northwestern Zhangbei grasslands for what the festival does right - camping, cheap food, laid-back local authorities and three solid days of live music for 150 yuan ($23.55) a day (120 yuan presale).
"If you'd have asked me now to start a music festival from nothing in two months time, I would tell you absolutely no way," said Inmusic magazine executive editor Li Hongjie, who is one of the 10-strong core crew behind the festival.
If anything, Inmusic represents one of the few festivals that have managed to help promote tourism.
Like most of the government-run events in the area, the festival is a component of the local tourism bureau's campaign to promote "grassland culture" which includes an outdoor concert series, art exhibitions, and even a Zhangbei marathon starting this weekend.
But a beautiful locale and deep-pocketed government backing do not automatically equal success.
According to Ma Xiaoye, a researcher with the Chinese Tourism Research Center in Beijing, solely government-sponsored festivals tend to be less profitable than those that cooperate with private sponsors。
"For the first few years the government will get the operation going, but then when the government pulls out, they fail," explained Ma. "This is because economic sustainability is never called into question."
"There is a period of adjustment where the event has to find its tourists. This should dictate how the event develops in the future," he added。
Li has more hope for his festival in the grasslands, his approach more akin to "if you build it, they will come."
"The whole point is getting people out to see it, that's all," he said. "If they see a small group of people will love it, they won't think a festival is scary. It's a whole culture."
The InMusic Festival will run from Friday, July 27 to Sunday, July 29.
Like most of the government-run events in the area, the festival is a component of the local tourism bureau's campaign to promote "grassland culture" which includes an outdoor concert series, art exhibitions, and even a Zhangbei marathon starting this weekend.
But a beautiful locale and deep-pocketed government backing do not automatically equal success.
According to Ma Xiaoye, a researcher with the Chinese Tourism Research Center in Beijing, solely government-sponsored festivals tend to be less profitable than those that cooperate with private sponsors。
"For the first few years the government will get the operation going, but then when the government pulls out, they fail," explained Ma. "This is because economic sustainability is never called into question."
"There is a period of adjustment where the event has to find its tourists. This should dictate how the event develops in the future," he added。
Li has more hope for his festival in the grasslands, his approach more akin to "if you build it, they will come."
"The whole point is getting people out to see it, that's all," he said. "If they see a small group of people will love it, they won't think a festival is scary. It's a whole culture."
The InMusic Festival will run from Friday, July 27 to Sunday, July 29.
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