From October 5th to 7th, the 2014 Taihu Midi Folk & World Music Festival will be grandly held at the Taihu Midi Music Park (Greenland Park) in Qidu Town, Wujiang District, Suzhou. The festival will feature four stages—Cotton, Silk, Kids, and Opera—covering a wide range of music genres including folk, blues, bluegrass, tango, and bossa nova, as well as traditional opera styles such as Peking Opera, Yue Opera, Huangmei Opera, and Puppet Kunqu. Outstanding musical groups from the United States, Germany, France, Australia, Sweden, Mauritius, and other countries will join local Chinese folk musicians and world music artists to deliver three days of spectacular performances by the beautiful shores of Taihu Lake. With one month to go before the festival, the organizing committee has officially announced the full lineup of performing artists.
Taihu Midi Music Industry Park Awarded “National Music Industry Demonstration Park” Title
On September 5th, the National Music Industry Promotion Committee under the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television officially awarded the Taihu Midi Music Industry Park in Qidu Town, Wujiang District, Suzhou, the title of “National Music Industry Demonstration Park.” At a press conference held at the Taihu Midi Music Park (Greenland Park), Mao Fengkun, President of the National Music Industry Promotion Committee, Shao Jun, Vice President, Zha Xudong, Party Secretary of Qidu Town, Zhang Zhiming, Mayor of Qidu Town People's Government, and Zhang Fan, Principal of Midi School of Music, gathered together to unveil the “National Music Industry Demonstration Park” plaque. This is the first such designation issued by the National Music Industry Promotion Committee to a domestic music institution, aiming to serve as a model for accelerating the development of the music industry in southern China and building a sustainable cultural industry ecosystem.
In May of this year, the Qidu Town Government of Wujiang District, Suzhou, reached a cooperation agreement with “Midi,” a leading brand in China’s modern music industry with a 20-year history, to comprehensively develop and promote the music and cultural industry in Qidu Town by the Taihu Lake. Leveraging the existing 800-acre physical platform of Greenland Park (now renamed Taihu Midi Music Park), the “Taihu Midi Music Industry Park” will be established, including a series of projects such as the Taihu Midi Folk & World Music Festival, Taihu Midi Music Park, and Taihu Midi Music School, with Suzhou Midi Culture and Art Co., Ltd. as the project organizer. In July, Mao Fengkun, President of the National Music Industry Promotion Committee, visited Suzhou to conduct an on-site inspection of Qidu’s music industry development environment and related plans. After deliberation, the committee officially awarded the title of “National Music Industry Demonstration Park” to the Taihu Midi Music Industry Park. At the September 5th press conference, President Mao Fengkun stated: “Using Midi’s modern, fashionable, and popular elements to carry the profound culture of Suzhou is an important means of excavating, organizing, creating regional ethnic culture, and promoting culture to go global.”
The Taihu Midi Industry Park will take music culture as its core element and the Taihu Midi Music Park as its physical platform to create a cultural tourism industry cluster that integrates music education, training, creation, production, performance, experience, and post-product development. From October 5th to 7th, the first Taihu Midi Folk & World Music Festival will serve as the overture to the construction of the industrial park.
A new star in China’s music industry is rising by the shores of Taihu Lake. The Taihu Midi Music Industry Park will concentrate its advantages to foster the cultivation and employment of music talent in southern China, build a robust music industry platform, and enable more young music professionals to showcase their talents and realize their musical dreams.