Music festivals thrive during May Day holiday in China

Outdoor music festivals during this past May Day holiday in China grew at a rate of 2.52-times compared with box office revenues for the same period in 2019, according to online ticketing platform Damai.cn.

The image from a video shows the 2021 Strawberry Music Festival held at the Beijing Expo Park.

As the country recovered from the COVID-19 epidemic, music festivals made a comeback. Statistics published by Damai.cn showed that a total of 56 music festivals were held across the country during the five-day holiday. And the overall number of events and the number of spectators in the audience expanded by 37 and 173 percent, respectively. Topics related to these live events received enormous attention on China’s social media platforms, too.

These music festivals included the Strawberry Music Festival, Midi Music Festival, China Cool Music Festival, and Midou Music Festival, among others, attracting various well-known artists such as New Pants, Miserable Faith, Xu Wei and Cui Jian.

Compared with the past two years, this year’s music festivals were held in second-tier and third-tier cities in much greater numbers, including in Binzhou city in east China’s Shandong province, Changzhou city in east China’s Jiangsu province, Jiaozuo city in central China’s Henan province, and Wanning city in the southern island province of Hainan.

Moreover, the music festivals were characterized by a variety of formats and genres, which therefore could cater better to the needs of different groups of attendees. The YOLO Music Festival in Changsha city, central China’s Hunan province, and the M_DSK Music Festival in Wanning city featured rap music. The Chengdu Zhanguo Midi Festival in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan province, was geared towards heavy metal music lovers. And the Strawberry Seeds Music Festival held in Hainan province was designed for parents and young children.

It is worth noting that some cities took the festivals and events as an opportunity to boost local tourism. To ensure the success of their own local festivals and events, the local governments for the cities of Jinan and Binzhou in Shandong province provided strong support for the two music festivals hosted within their jurisdictions.

In a mere 20 days, Binzhou finished flattening an area of 280 mu (about 18.67 hectares), installing 18,000 square meters of sod, constructing more than 7,000 parking lots, and installing 140 toilets.

Jinan city extended the operating time for three of its subway lines to 12 p.m. midnight, while arranging for a larger number of trains between 10 p.m. to 12 p.m. as attendees returned home from the festivities.

Statistics from the organizer showed that 65 percent of the audience at the Jinan Midi Music Festival was from outside the province, with these visitors contributing to around 20 percent of consumption growth related to culture and tourism during the holiday. Damai.cn showed that the M_DSK Music Festival in Wanning turned the city into one of the top 10 cities nationwide for ticketing revenues over the course of the May Day holiday.

The thriving music festival industry is only one example of China's robust live performance market that saw a significant uptick during the holiday. There were nearly 14,000 performances held nationwide during the holiday, generating a combined box office revenue of 860 million yuan (about $133.73 million) and attracting an audience of more than 6 million attendees, according to the China Association of Performing Arts.