October 21 , 2008 , TueModern Sky Festival (MSF): carnival of China’s edgy youth
By Summer Xia, Sheng Yuchen, Candy Yang
(Modern Sky 2008 in Hai Dian Park, Beijing; Sep.30 – Oct.2)
The 7-day holiday for National Day was truly a ‘festival’ for music fans, and non-fans, with the events 798 Rock Festival, Modern Sky Festival, and Notch 2008. Among these events, Modern Sky comes with the biggest scale (in terms of the number of bands and audience) and the biggest national influence (many youth come to Beijing for Modern Sky from all over the country).
Who are these many MSF goers?
Of course MSF is the thing for the fans of the ‘underground music’, but you don’t have to be in the know of the subculture to enjoy MSF. As a matter of fact, we see many youth enjoying the non-music part of the festival: the market of indie designer stuff, the camping base, the DIY workshop, and many ‘unknown spontaneous parties’. I’d say the audience is a mix of hardcore music fans, cool-hunters, and fun-hunters.
Experiencing ‘fun’, ‘excitement’, and ‘enthusiasm’ in MSF…
I was standing there trying very hard but could not think of a better playground than MSF for the youth of today. The three stages for different genres of underground music, the fleet-mart for indie designers, U-slot for skateboarders and all kinds of interactive events…just can’t decide to go to which game or show first. Some people joined the pogo mob; some jump and threw their arms into the sky with the rhythm; some hunt for the most exciting stuff in the market; some sat down for hours to DIY a ‘only’ bag; a few really have some skate-boarding moves…others just tried their best to have as much fun.
Hunting for the ‘style’?
What’s the hottest stuff in this year’s MSF? The red scarf and sailor’s striped shirt which bring us all back to the 80s’ childhood. Besides vintage, this grand fashion T stage also presented boldness of self-expressing, a little bit sensual or sexy, natural style, Chinese features, social consciousness symbols, Japanese comic style, villiage, etc.
(more images: MSF photo collection event on Douban.com, e-magzine <Kaila Street Snapshot> by Xu Jinglei)
Friends of the kind: on and offline.
Here you would most probably be able to find some cool friends who share the same ‘underground’ or ‘indie’ interests with you. All you need to do was to pat her shoulder and say, ’hey, so you are a fan of this band too? Let’s pogo!’ Or just logon to Douban.com and write a post in the event page like this: Who’s the boy selling the red scarf? Quite a lot of replies will soon appear including the scarf-selling boy introducing himself to the crowd too. One of our friends was from Sichuan, she came all the way down to Beijing just for MSF and of course to meet her friends online. ‘I knew some of them for quite a long time on the Internet, the others are their friends and now mine too.’
A party of brands.
The gig is swamped with youth brands… Entering the park, you wouldn’t miss the Quicksilver U-slot whith mostly foreigners playing on it. MSF maps were for free: Diesel’s whole-page ad of ‘Dirty Thirty’ events was printed on back. Two huge screens were hung beside the main stage playing TVCs in breaks. Moto Rokr stage was named after Moto Rokr, seems to be a new mobile phone model featuring music playing…
And I found some brands not only have their presence in the cool event but really engage the youth. Many young guys and girls were happy to take a picture with the red flag of a music website. Says on the flag ‘Rock’n'Roll is damn cool(爷就是摇滚)’. Other brands make themselves a good part of the carnival by delivering free pasters of designy pics (with brand names included). The youth even queue up to get some of those and having a lot of fun putting these colorful icons, slogans and even brand logos on themselves.
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October 21st, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Great post, we’ve been following your blog as we’re monitoring youth trends in China (http://www.mobileyouth.org/?s=china) for some time so each new post is a pleasant surprise.
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