A cooling rain failed to dampen the fervor of more than 10,000
rock music fans in Beijing's Haidian Park on May 4.
"The rain won't extinguish our passion for rock-n-roll!" shouted
Qin Tong vocalist of the rock band Honey Gun as the crowd shouted
its agreement and kept dancing to the music.
From May 1 to May 4, China's capital became a paradise for
thousands of rock fans from all over the country. Forty bands, many
playing punk and heavy metal music, and dozens of DJ's were
featured at the 7th Midi Music Festival.
From crowd-surfing fans, beer-spitting bands, to black
T-shirt-clad groups with colorful tents the festival had all the
traits of a typical rock festival.
The four-day festival attracted 50,000 young Chinese some of
whom camped out in tents, said Zhang Fan, head of the Midi music
school and organizer of the festival.
"This year's participants are more diversified, with not only
diehard rock fans, including students and office workers," Zhang
said, adding that attendance grown by 10 percent a year.
Waving, shouting and pogoing in raincoats or going topless was a
common scene in front of the stage.
"I absolutely love the atmosphere here, only free bodies can
fully enjoy it," said Zou Lili, who works at a radio station in
neighboring Tianjin.
There were four stages, the main stage for rock bands, and three
others for experimental, electronic music mixed by DJs.
"I hope the festival can present a new lifestyle," Zhang said.
Enjoying the open air and grass in the park, going between the four
stages to find music that suit one's taste and meeting new people
who share a love of music are what seemed to attract a lot of fans
to the festival.
As the festival, which coincided with the country's week-long
May Day Holiday, continued it was more than the music that
attracted people to the festival. Rock fan Xu Ning from Beijing
said he went to the festival every day where he played football,
flew kites and bought some music.
The Midi Music Festival first made its debut in May, 2000, which
featured performances from the bands from the private Midi Music
School. The first festival attracted an audience of no more than
1,000. Music fans are now saying this week's festival parallels the
famous Woodstock Music Festival which was held in United States in
the 1960's.
(Xinhua News Agency May 6, 2006)