4Month30Day -5Month2Day,2016the Taihu Midi Festival is stirring up a three-day musical storm in Qidu Town, Wujiang, Suzhou. On the festival’s second day, the Tang, Warring States, and Kids stages kept delivering a rich variety of performances to tens of thousands of music lovers. Having escaped the noise of urban life, attendees at the Suzhou Taihu Midi Camp were getting into the groove after a full day and night of festivities, as romance, innocence, enthusiasm, and wild energy spontaneously emerged across the breathtaking grassy fields and lake scenery.
2016The annual theme of the Midi Festival this year is “Stay Away from Drugs, Get Closer to Music.” And at Midi — a place fans regard as a “home” — countless small details reveal the unique power of music — not only does it steer us away from drugs, but it also leads us away from danger, fear, loneliness, and indifference.
First-time visitors to Midi often find the intense enthusiasm of the crowd somewhat overwhelming — that level of warmth and physical exuberance far exceeds the polite restraint we usually display in daily life. People bump into each other, releasing their primal instincts with abandon. But they quickly adapt to the rhythm, shedding some of the burdens of everyday life, because they realize that even if they fall during the mosh pit, someone will help them up; even if they drink until they’re completely wasted, they can still sleep soundly. At Midi, all that “armor” just isn’t necessary.
And so, during the second day’s revelry, a young mother who had just given birth to her second child couldn’t stop diving into the crowd at the Warring States stage — because she trusted the countless strong arms that lifted her up. Someone was looking for a stranger nearby...pogo...or embracing fellow festival-goers who had helped each other, because leaving might mean missing out on a serendipitous romantic encounter. Some fans hugged and kissed the security guards — regardless of age or status, under the influence of music, Midi, and love, we were all like family.
All of this was made possible by rock music. On the second day of performances, dozens of top domestic and international musicians pushed the atmosphere to even greater heights. Though the young performers on the Kids stage may have been technically inexperienced, their enthusiasm was no less intense. Kids chased balloons across the grass and painted with colorful crayons, turning the area into the purest paradise by Taihu Lake. The Warring States stage took on an increasingly hard-edged vibe, with rising Chinese metal bands like Contagion, Different Views, and Black Prayer following330the call of metal music to Midi.Never BeforeThe drummer turned out to be Chinese rock legendFunkyUmezawa, who gave fans a wonderful surprise. Hong Kong’s Mothmen, Canada’sProtest the Hero, China’s most enigmatic black metal band Burial Mound, and the just-back-from-European-tour nomadic metal band OverthrowMrepeatedly sent the audience into states of wild euphoria.
The Tang stage offered a diverse lineup, featuring the wine-like richness of blues fromBig Gunand Zhang Ling, as well as the experimental folk of Wan Xiaoli. International acts from the UK’sThe Harridans, South Korea’sBurning Soda, and France’sTeam Ghostrepresented the global standards of psychedelia, pop, and electronic music respectively.
A special highlight was Life is Like a Dose of Pills, who have been making music for 20 years. As soon as their iconic bagpipes sounded, the Tang stage transformed into a sea of joy. Fireworks lit up one after another as people danced around the lights. Over two decades, Life is Like a Dose of Pills has influenced an entire generation of fans and grown from standard-bearers of Wuhan punk into undisputed leaders of Chinese punk. Yesterday was also the birthday of their frontman Wu Wei, who raised a glass onstage — on this night, who knows how many joined him in getting drunk in honor of twenty years of Chinese punk.
The final act was Xie Tianxiao, living up to his title as the “King of Live Performances.” He blended guzheng, reggae,Grungecreating moments of deep intensity and raw ferocity. His explosive stage presence gradually pushed the crowd’s emotions to a fever pitch, as if even the waters of Taihu Lake were vibrating to his rhythm. Finally, the whirlwind of frenetic guitar riffs came to a sudden halt, leaving the roaring echoes reverberating between the audience’s eardrums and the air. (Text: Chen Xiaobei / Photos: Yan Min, Zhou Jie, Yu Xuan, Yu Zi, Kuang Ye, Xu Peng)