Guest writer Michael Ohlsson (promoter (Antidote), bar owner (Dada)) took Danish band Reptile and Retard to Chengdu’s Zebra featival. This is his take on the much lauded event. You can read a brief review and pictures at Go Chengdoo, plus comments. You can also see the video of the festival that Mogo made: we posted it HERE.
Last month I managed a 10 city tour of China with up and coming Danish electro-rock act Reptile Retard. This included gigs at the Danish Pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai, a support set with Peaches, and 2 gigs on the main stages at Beijing’s Strawberry Festival and Chengdu’s Zebra Festival.
I’ve been to over 10 large music festivals in China over the years, including working behind the scenes at some. Zebra festival is the best all around I’ve seen here. They had the best production — stage, sound, lighting — the best hospitality for artists, and despite 2 days of rain, the best over all experience for the audience.
The stages were kept at a distance so there was no sound bleeding over and mixing (most festivals in China, this is a problem) and scheduling was smart so that bands alternated on the 2 main stages — they resisted the temptation to over-book the stages.
Corporate / brand booths were smartly placed — out of site of the stage stomping grounds, but close enough to access. We appreciated the Jagermeister tent, for example — a 5 minute walk from the main stage, and with a nice selection of cocktails and ice cold Jager shots at very reasonable prices, and no VIP nonsense. Most of the other festivals we’ve been to only have cans of warm beer that you have to walk 20 minutes for, and ridiculous prices.
The crowd here in Chengdu also seemed to dig the festival spirit more than in other cities we’ve seen. Over night camping was allowed, Chinese and foreigners tossed frisbees together. That sort of vibe.
Although I’m not a fan of all the acts playing at Zebra, I’m glad to see the bookings are a mix of completely mainstream super star acts and indie acts from China and abroad, on the same stages. This is the way forward, I believe, for all. Other smart details like putting the festival schedules on Chinese style hand fans showed a creative wit on behalf of the organizers. However, estimates by the organizers of 200,000 attendees over 3 days are outrageous. Looked like less than a tenth of that per day, certainly well under 100,000 total.
The DJ / electronic stage was nearly empty every time we looked, perhaps because the acts were just mostly local resident club DJs. Could use a bit more integrity there. Also, security was overzealous — when the singer from our band walked down the stage stairs mid song to get closer to the audience (there was maybe 20 meters between the stage and the audience), he was held back by 10 security guards and walked back to the stage. The band was also instructed not to drink beer before or during their performance, as if they were children.
Hospitality was excellent by Chinese festival standards, but still could use some work. We were given free beer and water, but had to pay for Coca Cola (we were told they had to make a trip into town to get some — odd). We’d requested sandwiches on the rider, but were only given greasy junk food. When your singer has food poison from the train station junk food, this is kind of important.
In sum, Zebra isn’t perfect, but it’s 10 points ahead of most other festivals in China.