The 迷笛现代音乐节 Midi Music Festival is on again in Beijing until today, which is probably the best festival in China for alternative and underground music. The festival had problems earlier this year in May, when the Public Security Bureau canned it at the last minute over security issues. With the the organisers earlier statement the festival would have more cheerful and less angst-ridden hard-rock, email hidden; JavaScript is required" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;">Beijing Portal has jumped on the happy-wagon by informing all english speakers that the “Satan I Salute You” sign is in fact “I love you”. This lot just stick to the facts (with lots of pictures of your favourite satan-worshiping bands).

Starting in 2000, the Midi festival was at first a showcase of bands formed by students of the Midi school. Since 2002, the festival has become a large-scale outdoor music festival, performed by mostly young and little-known bands.

At the 2003 Midi festival, 43 bands from home and abroad performed at the Midi school campus to a daily audience of more than 10,000 people.

The 2004 festival, the fifth of the annual event, was originally scheduled to be held in May, but was postponed.

To provide a better environment for the festival, the Midi school decided to move the 2004 festival to the 40,000-square-metre Beijing Sculpture Park square.

From 3 to 10 pm for four days of this year’s festival, audiences can watch 45 bands playing various music styles including rock, folk, blues, hip-hop and jazz.

The bandlist includes Cold Fairyland, Twisted Machine, AK-47, Another Idea, CMCB, Handsome Black, Recycle, Subs, The Believers, The Verse, Muma, Last Successor, Kungfoo, Aska, Sand, Yaksa, Street of Happiness, Chun Qiu, Xia Jia Jazz Trio, Sound and Toy, Ruins, Brain Failure and Cold-Blooded Animal.

ak47

the believers