Midi Rock Festival

Today is the first Advent and I have to say, I would love to experience the pre-Christmas time in Germany. The colorful lights, the Christmas markets, setting up the Christmas tree in Sulzthal and eating cookies with tea and the advent wreath in the background, yes, that would be nice. But, as great as my body is, it distracts me. So, I spent the first Advent weekend mostly in bed. I've been sick for about three weeks, since the festival visit. Sometimes it was better and then it was worse again. But I was never really sick, just extremely weak and tired. On Friday morning, that changed. I woke up with a bad flu and was relieved when my lectures were over and I could crawl into bed. It all started at the festival, but it didn't get any better here at work. In the past few weeks, it has become autumn-like here and it hasn't been warmer than 10 degrees for a long time. Unheated classrooms are of course not conducive to health. Yes, the rooms where I work are not heated. The Chinese government has come up with something great in this regard. To make it easier to decide where to provide central heating and where not, the country was divided into North and South China. The Yangtze River, the third longest river in the world and the longest river in Asia, was chosen as the natural border. Natural border or not, they could have simply looked at the thermometer. I think heating is appropriate at five degrees Celsius outside. Well, be that as it may, I got really sick in the night from Thursday to Friday and on Saturday I decided to go to the hospital. However, it sounds worse than it is. There are no doctor's practices in China. You have to go to the hospital for a normal examination. I just wanted to have a blood test done to see if my three-week flu was viral or bacterial. After some difficulties, I finally got the result that it was a bacterial flu. That also explains why I have been struggling with it for so long. In the meantime, the values are only slightly elevated. My body has defeated all the bacteria on its own, but it is still a bit tired from the fight. So, I spent the first Advent in bed and didn't even have time to miss the Advent season. What would I do without my caring body?!

But actually, I wanted to write about the festival where I caught the flu. The festival took place on the first weekend of November not far from Hangzhou. On Saturday morning, I went there by bus with a group of international friends. Among them were my friends Matthias, his acquaintance Kate, a good friend from Syria, Mano, and Cassandra, a student from Great Britain. Together with about 30 others, we went to the Midi Rock Festival. I had no idea what to expect, but I firmly believed that there would be many foreigners there. The media describes Midi as the biggest alternative rock festival in China. I couldn't imagine young Chinese people being there. However, I was proven wrong. We were practically the only foreign visitors, and the rest were carefree Chinese in their mid and early twenties. I couldn't believe it and was extremely pleasantly surprised. Until this festival, I had only met the students from my university. They can simply be described as learning machines. They learn, sleep, and play LOL (an online game). They only know free time and fun theoretically. But at Midi, it was completely different. Even though there were only about 4000 visitors, which means about 3850 Chinese, it was still nice to learn that this kind of youth exists in China too. Young people who listen to music and enjoy life with their friends. Even without music or other experiences, just for this reason alone, Midi will be one of my highlights in China and will remain so. It has positively changed my view of Chinese youth, and I hope it becomes more popular and inspires more people to live this way.

With all these carefree Chinese, celebrating was much easier, and I have to say, the festival really took a toll on me. :D In the night from Saturday to Sunday, Mano said to me at some point, "Lena, take care. There is still a second day. Please, survive it!" The statement was not entirely unfounded, especially after I lost my sunglasses and my cell phone on the first day, got a sunburn, and cut my shin myself - just a small piece. But still, the weekend was really good. Not because of the things I just listed. The festival in general was amazing. There were only good bands with different musical genres. From hardcore to punk rock and blues, everything was there. So, I had the pleasure of seeing China's most famous punk rock band, Brain Failure (脑浊). There were many other good bands with interesting, very good music. But I don't remember their names anymore. I was busy with survival in some cases. :D

In addition to the bands, the atmosphere at the festival was absolutely insane. As you can already see in the photos, the Chinese really love flares and flags. German ultras could learn a thing or two from them. It was really wild in front of the stages with pogo, wall of death, stage diving, and everything else. When I wanted to capture it in photos, I lost my cell phone. I took the picture, but then forgot to put the cell phone back in my pocket. Well, it happens, and luckily there are friends who can send you pictures. It's really annoying because I had just bought the cell phone. But when it comes to self-inflicted things, the anger fades a bit faster - at least for me.

Of course, camping was also typical. But only Mano and I did that. The rest of the group celebrated or tried to sleep in a pub with techno music. The campsite was much more pleasant and more to my liking. The next day was a bit calmer, and I was determined to survive the festival without any further losses. It was really comfortable in the huge beanbags in front of the beer stand, and from time to time, I went to the stage to see a band and dance a bit. After the last band, we drove back to Hangzhou in the evening, and tired but very satisfied, I arrived at my apartment at night.

The Midi Rock Festival is organized by the Beijing Midi School of Music. This school was founded in the 90s and also organizes other festivals such as Midi Jazz or Techno Festival. They also give awards, and their goal is to promote new and alternative music genres in China. It's a really cool thing, 100% made by China. If anyone ever comes to China, they should definitely find out if one of the festivals falls during their stay. It's worth a visit. I will most likely also go to the other Midi Festivals. It doesn't matter if they match my taste in music or not. The school and the events must be supported and, if possible, spread.