Review: 2009 Zebra International Music Festival

Lisa Liang | May 8, 2009 5:00 pm | Add a comment | 2011 reads

Ahh, the weekend. Some are good for partying, and some are good for sleep. Given all the partying that went on last weekend (with Labor Day and music festival madness and all), this one would be a good one for resting up and reflection.

No doubt there was a lot going on in Beijing. But there also happened to be a lot of Beijing going on in Chengdu, in particular at the first in what organizers hope to be many Zebra International Music Festivals.

Many a Beijing band graced the festival’s main stage – Brain Failure, SUBS, New Pants, Casino Demon, Carsick Cars, The Gar, Hedgehog – with the Sichuan crowd singing alongside.

“They knew the words to our songs and everything,” observed Casino Demon’s Wang Zi, who were one of the first acts to perform.

Emo-grungers SUBS played the last night of the festival, and lead singer Kang Mao promised to “come back again, if invited.”

Brain Failure frontman Xiao Rong also expressed enthusiasm for a repeat appearance next year, remarking that “everything was top-notch – the sound system, the lighting … and we definitely support the festival’s slogan of ‘I Care.’”

What distinguished the Zebra Festival from the many that happened last weekend was, perhaps, the close collaboration with local and national non-profit organizations, charities and support groups. While the event originally only planned to host 10 NGOs, in the end a total of 17 participated – among them WWF, Women in Disaster Areas, We Design, Oxfam, Qiming Animal Rescue, Wildgrass Culture Center and Green SOS.

Paulo Tullio, winner of tbj’s May Trivia Travails and an all-inclusive pass to the festival, thought this: “The presence of complete families rocking on New Pants with a nanny and their 7-year-old girl, or lines of mingong staring with empty eyes at some Cantonese hip-hop, gives you the feeling that most people were there just because there was something and not really for the sake of music. It's really cool to watch though!!"

There may have been much less of a “young hippies/rock music connoisseurs” vibe than what can be found in the West, but Tullio still “would have liked to stayed longer and gotten more drunk.”

From the perspective of music festivals in China, Zebra can be considered a success, with a reported 100,000 attending over May 1-3. Hence, the folks at Zebra have pledged to continue organizing the festival for the next five years.

Good for Sichuan, and good for Beijing bands.

Xiao Rong (Brain Failure)

Mad JiLiang (Brain Failure)

Dee Dee Wang Jian (Brain Failure)

Kang Mao (SUBS)

Wuhao (SUBS)

Shou Wang (Carsick Cars)

Zo on guitar/vocals and Atom on drums (Hedgehog)

Muma (MUMA & Third Party)

Zhan Pan (The Gar)

Sun Lingsheng (Super VC)

Photos by Lisa Liang