Sometimes it seems my laptop is up against it’s own Great Firewall in addition to the normal BS we encounter over here – I’ve been unable to log onto my blog, but it seems specific to my computer. Maybe I am more important than I thought. Or maybe this macbook is just on its way out (please god no.) At any rate time is flying and a lot has gone un-blogged.
First off – the Zebra Music Festival. The leadup to the festival was shrouded in a degree of hype and mystery. Our friends said it was the most fun they’d had in Chengdu last year. Go Chengdoo’s annual poll named it the best event of 2010. But information was slow to emerge, and that compounded by a Chengdu- aversion to detailed planning meant we were only getting our act together the morning the festival began. This task was exacerbated by the cocktail party we threw the night before which ended in too much KTV, leaving our motor functions slow and heads fuzzy Saturday morning as we attempted to set off.
My only point of music festival comparison being Bonnarroo, I had low expectations for what Zebra would be like, which made it that much more fun in the end. The weather was festival-perfect – hot and balmy, with a light breeze and the persistent threat of warm rain (that held off until after we left for the night, when it released in full force on all those camping). The main stage was set at the bottom of a rolling hill on which everyone set up campsites and picnic blankets; there were tons of people, tons of festival food (there was no funnel cake, but there WAS cotton candy), and tons of cold budweiser wheeled around by scantily clad budweiser girls. It almost felt like America. Aside from a several hour power-loss (…China) the performances impressed. As the sun went down the acts got rowdier as did the crowd, culminating in an AWESOME french band led by a singer who was actually out of control. I forgave them their horrible choice in band name (S.U.C.C.E.S.S.) because this cross between Freddy Mercury and Russel Brand (what?) put everyone under a dancing, screaming spell – overwhelming the Chinese with his gyrations, pseudo-strip show, and noticeably (I assume purposefully) unzipped fly that he continually thrust upon us as he pranced around the front of the stage. Maybe you just had to be there. We didn’t end up staying for the night, and in the end only experienced that first day of the three day festival, but it was a great time and definitely is up there in my favorite Chengdu memories. Of course power outages, a completely unnecessary amount of security, and performance curfews of 10 pm made it clear didn’t let you forget this IS China, but it seemed the event organizers worked with what they got; as did the crowd, who seemed to be genuinely enjoying what the shows were rather than lamenting over what they couldn’t be. Supposedly it only got better the last 2 days.
... even jager made it to zebra festival
pic borrowed from gochengdoo
