The inMusic festival has suffered over it’s short life span from many of the teething problems that music festivals have to endure. In this article (HERE), ex-Beijinger music editor Wang Ge tells his story of tour managing veteran UK rock band Killing Joke to the Mongolian grasslands and back. It’s a bit funny and a bit tragic, quite honestly.
at about 2 a.m. on Sunday morning, the British concert veterans put on a kick-ass show in the paralyzing cold for a 500-strong die-hard Chinese crowd
It’s been seven hours on the road, during which time I’ve listened to endless complaints, … The driver got lost, we sat through a major traffic jam at a tollgate, drove forever across the grasslands, slithered through a bog where we almost had to get out and push, and heard Coleman ask “HOW MUCH LONGER?” 11 times
A rule that we learned a long time ago – don’t try touring China on older, established bands unless they REALLY want to come, and even then, it’s a risk. The best line from the article was from one of the band members:
“It’s like the Czech Republic when it first came out of Communism,” Neven said to me while we were waiting at the hotel. “Everybody wants to do everything, but nobody knows how to do it. It’s a learning process.”
When applied to Chinese music festivals, never truer words spoken…