Flying under the radar each summer is the Zhangbei Inmusic Festival, which despite attracting talent from everyone from Spiritualized to CocoRosie to Tricky (twice!) never seems to get the coverage afforded to the Midi and Strawberry festivals of the world. Or even the Shanghai Sonics. Regardless, Zhangbei (the festival’s Chinese name) is back again this summer in the same patch of grass approximately 3 hours outside of Beijing.
The lineup is fairly standard with a few standouts and/or question marks: headliners for the 3-day festival are Mandopop darlings Sodagreen, festival stalwart Xie Tianxiao, and Cui Jian. More interestingly, this year the presenting sponsor is Red Bull, and whereas the primary organizer is Sun Media Group, the conglomerate run by “China’s Oprah Winfrey” Yang Lan and her husband Bruno Wu. We wrote last week about Mainland celebrities investing in music festivals. Although Yang Lan is not an actress, she’s just as recognizable and popular as Vicki Zhao. Which celebrity / celebrity’s company will be next to sponsor a major festival?