2011 Zebra Music Festival

Edison Chen made his come-back headlining this year’s pop-heavy Zebra line-up.

Words and pictures Hugh Bohane.

This year’s Zebra Music Festival in Chengdu over the May holiday saw Edison Chen return to the China entertainment industry after a three-year hiatus (for those of you not familiar with the why, check this extensive wiki article on indecency). Rumours abounded during the promotional campaign (which was much later than in previous years), that Edison’s face had been deliberately left off many Chengdu posters in the lead up to the event, for fear of upsetting the ZMF’s family-orientated mission statement.

The ZMF is one of the the biggest in-land festivals in the country, with more or less a 90% local audience and is certainly one to keep an eye on for future, anthropological- reference. Now in its third year, there were a few changes to the festival. Held in co-operation with the local Chengdu municipal government, the 2011 edition chose to feature more Mandopop than in previous years. There were still exceptions: some alternative national and international rock, electro, nu-metal, hip-hop, reggae and ska bands. Apart from the pop-centric line up, many punters felt disappointed by the absence of the crowd-pleasing Xiong Mao/ Panda Club, which in previous years pumped out a steady feast of electronica until the wee smalls hours. Instead, there were only a handful of DJ’s, playing on stage 2 at selective times over the three days, usually having to shut down before 11 pm.

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