And so Modern Sky confirm the rumours. No real surprises, with nightly headliners being:
the Futureheads, Shonen Knife, Radio 4
and most amusing is the fact that seminal 70′s punk band the Buzzcocks will be playing the 60th birthday celebrations of China’s beloved Communist Party. For this is the only reason that Modern Sky are able to get the festival approved during such a sensitive time – the Modern Sky Festival is a major part of the celebrations.
Some things to note.
- The festival finally has a nice, slick looking website. 2009′s version is so much more pro than anything that has gone before. Nice.
- The prices have almost doubled since last year. It will be interesting to see how the traditionally price sensitive Chinese will react to a daily price of 120RMB and 4 days at 320RMB
- Will Modern Sky be able to persuade their new hosts at Chaoyang Park to abandon the 30m “Golden Circle” that meant the crowd could never get within shouting distance of the main stage during the Beijing Pop Festival?
- The festival will only be one single stage, with another free stage outside the ticketed area which will feature the younger and less well known bands.
All in all, it looks like some compromises have been made in order to secure the venue. The lineup is definitely a step up, with strength in depth (although Radio 4? Surely they haven’t done anything since their very moderate 2003 album – sorry, just looked: they followed up in 2006), but there isn’t anything to get the pulses really racing. We hope they wlll step the production up this year to fit with the rest of the festival.
And beware, if you want to save 20RMB a day, there are only 4,000 advance tickets available.
Small nit-picking complaint: I thought Modern Sky asked bands to chose either to play May’s Strawberry Festival or the October’s Modern Sky Festival.
Re-Establishing the Rights of Statues and 旅行团 definitely played Strawberry. (Still, Re-TROS are amazing, and should be on every bill!).
There are a lot of new bands I haven’t heard of before. It’s too bad the secondary stage is outside the ticketed area. How are people supposed to slink off from the main stage when a dud starts playing (*cough* New Pants *cough*) to go check out the kiddie stage?
yawn…..when is there going to be another festival that is worth getting excited about like the old Beijing Pop Festival or the Yue Festival. This isn’t a lineup worth fighting the hordes of people that are going to descend on Beijing this year for the 60th anniversary parade and festivities.
We’ve heard rumours, sellout. Rumours…
Ugh. For me, festivals here in China are about meeting up with old friends in the scene, hanging out and getting drunk. Music is secondary, really. It’s about the atmosphere.
Doesn’t matter who is playing. Although it does suck that the Maybe Mars roster is notably slim, I’d take a weekend of Beijing rock over most artists the West has to offer anytime.
I totally agree…Beijing music is so superior to what the west has to offer. Their sound is just so original and their English lyrics…wow..talk about amazing…almost as amazing and deep as their Chinese lyrics, that while I don’t understand must be great. And talk about stage presence….never has a western artist done such cool things on stage…..i feel bad for all those pathetic western bands and fans who will never be as cool as this….