Source: Pandaily
"Strawberry Music Festival, sometimes referred to as the Woodstock of China, has built up iits fame in the past decade and has held events in 28 cities across China.
Shen Yue, Vice President of Modern Sky (festival organiser), told media: “All the music festivals and tours have been postponed. Many foreign bands have canceled their performances in China too, which would therefore have an impact on their tour arrangements around Asia. Optimistically speaking, the performances can resume their due approval processes in April or May and will begin from June, but it may also postpone until the second half of the year.”
From February 4 to 8, The Strawberry Music Festival and short video platform Bilibili jointly held a series of “Stay at Home Strawberry” streaming events. According to official press release, the show was held in the hope of bringing love and support to the people who are fighting against the novel coronavirus. The free live streams begin at 4 pm and run to 10 pm. It has been the second time recently that Bilibili was broadly reported, after the New Year’s Eve online concert. With a slogan of “let’s disco dance at home”, the video platform knows best how to cater to the insatiable spiritual needs for young folks.
The streams include replays of live performances from previous music festivals featuring more than 70 musicians and bands, including rappers Kafe Hu and Tizzy T, rock artists Birdstriking and Re-TROS, and New Pants. Many of the sets were recorded at previous Modern Sky-organized festivals across the country. The footage, according to Mr Shen, has never been previously disclosed before.
Bilibili is not the only company that has tried the online music live-streaming model. Recently, video platform Kuaishou has been working with Taihe Music Group, a music unicorn with the largest market share in Chinese music industry, to launch a week-long uninterrupted online music party, including online live performances of musicians, as well as disco and DJ shows. The cooperation offers new entertainment options for homebodies."
Simon Says
You might be surprised to see the word "spiritual" throughout this article. In communist China, "spirituality" is the best (and yet, not really satisfactory) translation for 精神，which refers to a person's (and a people's) psyche, rather than anything more metaphysical. "Spiritual" development of society is a big priority for the Chinese government, who in 1997 formed a Central Guidance Committee on Building a Spiritual Civilisation.
Connect with Simon Young 杨瑾鸿