Promoters/Festivals

Promoters of popular music in China are pop ‘n’ rock festivals are many, including foreign expatriates, music fans and PR companies. The Beijing International Jazz festival was co-founded by Udo Hoffman, Robert van Kan and saxophonist Liu Yuan back in 1993. The festival was held in Beijing from 1993 to 2000. After a seven-year hiatus, a new jazz Festival was set up in late September 2007 at Haidian Park, a cooperative effort between the Beijing Midi School of Music and Beijing Midi Productions. Performers included American jazz musicians (Wynton Marsalis, Jon Jang), as well as many artists and groups from Scandinavia. After the demise of the Beijing International Jazz Festival, Wu Promotion (China) has played an integral role is bringing Dutch jazz performances to China during the mid to late 1990s.  Jon Campbell is an expatriate who has been actively involved promoting concerts and pop ‘n’ rock festivals in Beijing. He is co-producer of the Time Arts Jazz Series which, since 2005, has presented a range of artists in the 2,000-seat theatre at the Peking University Concert Hall. Campbell also runs YG Two Productions who have organized a number of shows and tours in China, including Abigail Wasburn and the Sparrow Quartet’s 2006 China Tour, and a tour of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland of the Beijing-based garage punk band Subs in 2007. In recent years, many outdoor music festivals have been staged in China. In September 2005, the International Pop Festival in Beijing was held in Chaoyang Park, attracting nearly 10,000 people. Sponsored by Rock for China Entertainment (RCE), this Festival has become one of the biggest outdoor music events in Asia and China's biggest pop music festival with increasing international participation. While Beijing is often considered the “home” of rock music, in 2006, there were at least seven outdoor music festivals held across the country, including Modern Sky Festival in Beijing, and the Snow Mountain Festival in Lijiang, Yunnan province. In many cases, organizing outdoor music events can be “difficult” because the government doesn’t issue its approval until the last moment, making it difficult for organizers to confirm arrangements with performers, including those from abroad. It should be noted that many festivals have not been specialized enough to focus on one genre of music. As a result rock and pop often share the same stage.