Chinese 'Glastonbury' rocks grassland, brings fame to host county
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ROCK MUSIC BRINGS FAME, WEALTH
Zhangbei, an economically poor county, had little fame before last year's 1st InMusic Festival.
Local residents joked that the festival was the third time that the nation had paid attention to this small county, including following a magnitude-6.2 earthquake that killed 49 people and injured more than 10,000 in 1998 and when President Hu Jintao visited in 2004, during which he made dumplings with villagers.
Click rates of online news stories about last year's festival stood at 30 million viewings, the Zhangbei government said in a report.
The local government thought hosting a music festival would prove to be a good method of self-promotion, as the county needs publicity for its grasslands tourism, according to Li Xuerong, Zhangbei's Communist Party chief who said he got the inspiration and information about holding the event from friends in Beijing.
Previously, the county government tried to promote Zhangbei in various ways, but all had little effect, he said.
Also, local residents knew the festival would be a good opportunity to make money through selling food, water and accommodations.
More than 60 booths supplying food and water were set up at the site.
Some local families also turned their homes into temporary hotels, where they shared with guests all that they had.
Last year, the county's service industry grossed more than 12 million yuan (1.76 million U.S. dollars) during the three-day music carnival from August 7 to 9, according to data from the county's commerce and tourism bureaus.
"We earned about 30,000 yuan during last year's festival," said Wang Shulan, 56, who owns a farmhouse restaurant near the festival site.
These numbers were not too small for a county in which the average income for farmers in 2009 was only 2,954 yuan, just above half of the national average.
"The music festival has become a brand for the county. Possibly, it could last for more than ten years, as the government has reserved lands as big as five times the current site for future events," said Liu Yifan, producer of InMusic Magazine.
The Zhangbei government and InMusic signed a 10-year contract to jointly organize the music festival during each of the next 10 years.
