Midi Delayed Again

After a series of “It’s On “, “No It’s Off”, “No It’s On Again” posts back in April, we resolved not to write about the Midi Festival again until all the details had been 100% confirmed. For the past two or three weeks we’ve been following the drama on the Midi school’s BBS as organizers reported about their efforts to get official permission to hold the event at the National Olympic Sports Center over the National Day Holidays. Despite some other websites going ahead and announcing that it would be taking place, we decided to hold back and wait and see. I’m glad we did. Last night we received a call from one of the organizers to let us know that the Midi Festival has been delayed yet again. It will now (probably) be taking place at Haidian Park over the Oct 10-12 weekend and possibly the following weekend too. According to a note on the Midi School BBS, just as the organizers were about to receive the long awaited permission from the Chaoyang governent’s cultural bureau, during a meeting with officials from the National Olympic Sports Center they were informed that there might be some complications.

Basically it has boiled down to a question of exorbitant security costs. Due to the fact that most of the Olympic venues, including the neighboring Bird’s Nest, Water Cube, Olympic Green and the Olympic Forest Park will all be open to the public over the week long National Holiday and because city authorities are expecting hundreds of thousands of Beijing residents and out of town visitors to visit these sites, they demanded a higher level of security preparation from the festival organizers. The first commercial concert to be held in the Bird's Nest - rumored to be a foreign act - was also refused permission due to similar concerns. Midi's organizers were told that they could still hold the festival but that they would have to pay RMB 700,000 a day to provide the level of security that the venue officials required. In the face of such demands, Midi organizers had no alternative but to look for an alternative venue. In the end they’ve decided to return home to Haidian Park. The Olympic Air Defense Force, who had been using the park as a base during the Games, are packing up and moving out over the National Day holidays, so the large area of the park where the festival has been held for the past few years will be available for use. As for details about prices and who will be performing, keep an eye on the Rock in China Midi page and Ed Peto is following the situation over at his great OUTdustry site.

The Modern Sky Festival is also being held in Haidian Park but this year there’ll only be three stages (last year there were four), two of which will be located inside the Haidian Park exhibition hall. The main outdoor stage will be set up in the square to the west of the exhibition hall. However, there will be plenty of stalls, music and other activities going on around the park too.

Links and Sources
Midi School BBS
Midi School BBS: 2008迷笛音乐节再度延期，古人云：事不过三！(announcement of delay in Chinese)
Outdustry: Olympic Security Hangover : Midi Update
Official Midi Site
Rock in China: Midi Festival
Sina: Midi Festival (Chinese-language site)
Shanghaiist: Midi and Modern Sky go head to head
The Beijinger: Midi Festival posts from April
The Beijinger: Modern Sky Festival to go ahead but no international acts