Weekend Nightlife: Fatboy on Great Wall

No doubting where the biggest party of this weekend is – it’s the much anticipated Great Wall Music Festival featuring ‘90s UK dance legend Fatboy Slim out near Badaling. I’d bet on a crowd-pleasing set of dance floor classics, with a healthy dose of Fatboy’s own best-known tracks (hopefully not anything he produced after about 2000, though). Let's get one thing straight: The party's not on the Wall, just beside a section of it, though you can go for a walk up during the day if you're so inclined.

The Details
Rumors that co-headliners El-Mar, Suki and Patrick Yu will join Fatboy for an impromptu rendition of The Housemartins’ a cappella hit "Caravan of Love" remain unsubstantiated, but what you can bet on is a three-stage lineup featuring Fatboy Slim, El-Mar, Spark, Suki, Patrick Yu, Ou Yang and Mickey Zhang on the main stage; Blackie,
D-N, Harikiri, Kay C, Mikey D and Donkey Tonk on The Syndicate Stage; and Huang Weiwei, Gao Hu, Bobby, Leslie, Eddie, Dio, X.L.F. and Terry Tu on the Connect Stage.

Organizers also promise a visual treat during Fatboy’s set, with each song “backed by a newly created state-of-the-art visual.” British visual art studio Plastic Reality teamed up with the DJ to create a “digital avatar of himself” that will star in the visual display. Interesting.

Tickets and Where to Get Them
By now, you’ve missed the boat on early bird tickets – all tickets are RMB 380 (including coach transport to and from the site). Tickets are available in Sanlitun at Yugong Yishan, Kokomo, Fish Nation, Serve the People and Crepanini; Salud on Nanluogu Xiang; in Wudaokou from Lavita at BLCU and The Bridge Café; and in the Ritan area from Nola. You can also buy online from Clubzone.cn, P1.cn and Innight.com. For more information, call 136 8126 3981 (English) or 135 0113 1195 (Chinese).

Getting There
If you’re on one of the coaches put on by the organizers, you’ll be setting out from either Chaoyang Park South Gate or Huaqing Jiayuan’s East Gate in Wudaokou. Buses leave at 2pm and 5pm.

If you’re making your own way there, you’re heading for the “Secret Great Wall,” or Badaling Gu Changcheng (八达岭古长城) as it's formally known. The organizers have offered the following directions:
“Take the Badaling Expressway, exit at Badaling, turn left after exiting the highway, turn left again 200m after the petrol station, and follow the road to the Great Wall.”

And in Chinese, just in case you need to show a driver:
“选择八达岭高速， 八达岭出口出来，下了高速向左转，遇到加油站后再走200米之后向右转，沿着路一直走直到长城.”

Alright, that's about it. Enjoy yourselves if you're going. Same time tomorrow for the rest of this weekend’s nightlife news, including A-Trak at Tango on Friday, Riviera Events’ pool party at IO Spa at Gongti East Gate on Saturday afternoon, and Centro’s closing party on Saturday.