After three years in Beijing, Pilot Records’ Inter City Music Festival has packed up and taken the operation to coastal beer haven Qingdao. With doubtless a healthy injection of cash from the Qingdao municipal government’s communications bureau (宣传委员会), the organisers have put together a varied, eclectic lineup that covers both Pilot’s own stable of hard-rock and punk bands, festival favorites, foreign faces and poppier fare.
Looking at official media coverage (here is Sina’s story) and a painfully dour account of the Qingdao Municipal Government’s planning meeting (we read it so you don’t have to), the local government has had a big hand in funding the festival, no doubt sweetening the deal for the move. In the name of increasing “reform and opening up of culture,” the likes of Peaches, Cui Jian and MC Hotdog will grace the stages at Qingdao’s golden sand beaches.
After the twin debacles of Chengdu Big Love Music Festival (more on that forthcoming) and Zhangbei Inmusic Festival (ditto), here’s hoping that the late summer festivals, which include Inter City, Guiyang Yoga Midi, Music Funhill, Max Star and Planet festivals succeed where their predecessors have met with varying degrees of hardship. Or at least, we sincerely hope that everyone gets paid and no one cries on stage.
Festival’s official website appears not to be online yet but here are links to their Douban event page and Weibo. Official poster below; full bilingual lineup can be found after the jump.
