The Painkiller band headlined the 2016 Shenzhen Midi Festival — “Don’t Stop ‘Getting Closer to Music’”

With2016the new year's first day, as night fell, the Shenzhen New Year’s Eve Midi Music Festival also came to a perfect close. During the two-day performances across the2015/16year’s transition, leading contemporary Chinese rock bands such as Painkiller, Escape Plan, Reflector, Sound Toy, and Suffocation, as well asArms&Sleepers,Scare the Childrenand other internationally acclaimed overseas bands delivered stunning performances for live audiences and those watching online. Under the theme of the2016annual Midi Festival —““Stay Away from Drugs, Get Closer to Music””— tens of thousands of fans celebrated the new year together, stepping into the new year with music and friends by their side.

Within the festival’s main venue, the Longgang Universiade Center in Shenzhen, the four stages — Tang, Warring States, Little Acoustic, and Kids’ Stage — each offered their own distinctive performances.The Kids’ Stage area featured a New Year’s wishes wall fully covered in colorful drawings by fans,open-air movie screenings at NuLan Cinema, cultural booths, and a food street, all providing a rich variety of cultural experiences for audiences choosing to ring in the new year with music. Strict security measures ensured the safety of all attendees.2015/16The Shenzhen New Year’s Eve Midi Music Festival came to a flawless conclusion thanks to the joint efforts of musicians, fans, and organizers.

The first day’s performances kicked off on the Tang Stage with the winners of the “I Want to Be on Midi” band competition — Pubic Bone and Five Fingers.“The Midi Festival has always been committed to discovering talented young bands, giving them a platform to showcase their music, and allowing fans to hear fresh and excellent sounds amid increasingly homogenized festival performances. Bands from Xinjiang such as Loulan Box, from Yunnan like Dahongpao, from Beijing”,SUBS,France’sScare The Children,Japan’sAsAlliance, Holland’sFara, Spain’sRise to Fall, and others allowed fans to experience a wide range of musical styles from around the world. The award-winning Sound Toy band, which claimed four prizes at the China Rock Midi Awards as an outstanding representative of2015China’s rock scene, gradually elevated the atmosphere with beautiful melodies andmelancholiclyrics.

The second day’s Kids’ Stage remained a sea of joy, with standout performances by Little Rascals Family, the young drummers of Drum Tang, as well asGreen Blues, Tornado, Blue Dreams, and other young bands, showing everyone that encouraging kids to play music creatively is everyone’s responsibility. The independent rock band Damu from Changsha headlined the Kids’ Stage. High-energy performances by local Shenzhen bands such as Ruindou from Quanzhou, Green Bus,NewAir, and others brought the second day’s Little Acoustic Stage to a perfect close.

As one of the most representative bands to emerge from the Midi Music School and the Midi Music Festival stage, Pain Youth has just showcased to a national television audience on the show *China Star* the electrifying energy and time-honored tenderness of China’s middle-generation rock bands. Their return to the Midi stage this time feels more like a homecoming after shedding the excesses of fame.“Homecoming”the same2016Their first performance of the year kicked off as if they were unleashing all their passion from the very start. After a few classic tracks brimming with youthful fervor, lead singer Gao Hu stripped off his shirt, returning to a state of complete ease and naturalness—much like when he went barefoot on stage during the *China Star* performance. It also brought back memories of bassist Zhang Jing dancing barefoot on the Midi stage a decade ago. These are some of the most beautiful memories shared by Pain Youth, the Midi Music Festival, Chinese rock music, and its fans. They were brought vividly back to life in the songs sung at the dawn of the new year.

The encore song performed by Pain Youth was *The Most Beautiful Day of My Life*.2016On the first day of the year,amidstthe first Midi Music Festival of the year,held safely and smoothly at the Shenzhen Universiade Center, came to a close.Fans who couldn’t bear to leave embraced one another beneath the stage. It was the first gathering of Midi friends that year, and they whispered promises of meeting again to one another.(Text by Chen Xiaobei, photos by Yan Min, Li Lewei, Piaoran Kuanye, and Xia Yuxuan)