Debacle in Mongolia

An evaluation of the disastrous Green Flag music festival in Hohhot (Mongolia) last year

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With it’s better advertised Mongolian cousin is going ahead this next weekend (InMusic Festival: preview HERE), we would like to draw your attention to another festival, the Green Flag festival which debuted last year in Hohhot.

Controversy dogged the 2009 edition. Many of the bands publicised pulled out at the last minute because they did not have contracts before the event. On day one, only 4 of the 10 bands advertised actually performed. The festival ambitiously (and somewhat strangely) booked Li Yuchun (of SuperGirl reality TV fame) to headline.  Rumours were she was paid over 600,000RMB for her performance.  Rain lashed the site for most of the last day, and the site turned to mud. Li Yuchun’s set suffered from this heavy rain and during the performance, her assistant put up an umbrella to shield her. The crowd started to throw things (both physical and verbal) at her on stage. You can see someone’s middle finger in the video below:

An angry crowd in Mongolia’s Green Flag music festival

The video has already been viewed 260,000 times with over 2,000 comments. Most were directed at the festival organisers, the Inner Mongolia Gu Hai Yu Cultural Development Company. Not enough hotels were provided for bands, drivers for band transport weren’t paid and so left, leaving bands stranded, and generally the sound, lighting and overall organisation were terrible. We spoke to one of the bands (who would like to remain anonymous). Their comments were that the festival was “no fun”. When asked why, they said “the organizer was “terrible” and “cheated” a lot of the bands.

We got in touch with the organisers for their version of the story. They phoned us back almost immediately and told us the following:

  • It was jointly organised by the Inner Mongolia Hai Yu Cultural Development Company and the venue.
  • They were in charge of the artists and promotion while the venue was in charge of operations including the sound and light system. There were definitely some incidents during the festival because of their lack of experience and the organisation was a mess. They apologise for this.
  • They were also the victims because lots of scalpers sold the tickets for a low price at the venue. And they sold less than 60 tickets in the last two days of the festival.
  • They spent around 570,000 RMB inviting the singer Li Yuchun.
  • The cultural company will draw lessons from the failure and try their best to do a real rock’n roll festival next year without pop stars.

Organising large scale music festivals is a difficult job.  There are a huge number of variables, and inexperienced organisers often fail to appreciate this.  From the outside, a well organised festival looks like the easiest way to get laid and get paid.  The reality is anything but, as many Chinese promoters are finding out.  It will be interesting to get the report from another inaugural festival next weekend.

Still, it is encouraging for the Chinese music industry that so many people are trying, and that so many festivals are being authorised.  The good ones will survive and get better, the bad ones disappear.  Darwinism at its best!

Finally, we leave you with the “riot” that happened there – the video that we originally saw has already been blocked, bless the censors at Youku…

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