People celebrate the music at the Midi Music Festival, in Beijing
© AFP Frederic J.Brown

BEIJING (AFP) - Nearly 90 bands are playing the five stages at this year's Midi Modern Music Festival, co-sponsored by the Greenpeace, in an effort to raise environmental awareness among the country's party-goers.

Opening day on Tuesday saw more than 50,000 concert-goers cram Haidian Park in Beijing's university district. Up to 30,000 are expected to attend day two and for the remainder of the festival which ends Friday.

"It is all about youth and music, if you bring them good music they are going to come back in bigger numbers," festival organiser Zhang Fan told AFP.

"It looks like we are going to triple the number of concert-goers this year compared to last year."

Chinese bands like Brain Failure, Catcher in the Rye and Reflector have all produced "green songs" for the concert, while former Eurythmics front man Dave Stewart and singer Imogene Heap will close the festival Friday with the newly released Greenpeace anthem "Go Green."

The festival, now in its eighth year, began in 2000 as a showcase event for Zhang's Midi Music School, China's first-ever school teaching modern music styles like rock, rap, jazz, techno and blues.

But this is the first year it has been linked to the environmental group.

People celebrate the music at the Midi Music Festival, in Beijing
© AFP Frederic J.Brown

The two join forces after slowly gaining acceptance in China: Rock music has endured despite being frowned upon by the ruling Communist Party, while Greenpeace was only recently allowed to set up a branch in China.

"Definitely this is new, we are bringing together Greenpeace and rock and roll," Zhang said.

"China needs to promote environmental protection and everyone knows this is a good way to do it."

Greenpeace has more than 300 student volunteers at the festival, while video clips of bands promoting environmental awareness are shown on the big screen between music sets.

"Rock and roll is still a new thing in China, and environmental protection is a new topic in China, so it is good that we finally have this combination together," Greenpeace China spokesman Yu Xin told AFP.

"The music is focusing on the youth and we feel that it is also very important that the youth are aware of the huge environmental problems facing China."

Greenpeace is also premiering in China its environmental documentary "The Planet" which documents the impacts of global warming and is being shown continuously at the organisation's tent at the festival.

a woman surfing above the crowd at the Midi Music Festival, in Beijing
© AFP Frederic J.Brown

After a history of festivals being shut down by police at the last moment or heavily restricted by a government wary of any activities that could lead to opposition to the Communist Party, rock and roll is slowly moving toward the Chinese mainstream, organiser Zhang said.

Much of that is due to the Midi school that has sought to focus on training musicians and entertainers on modern music technology, while seeking to steer clear of the rebellious nature of rock and roll, he said.

"The role of the Midi Festival in developing rock and roll in China has been to let the government know that rock and roll is not dangerous," Zhang said in an often repeated mantra of his school.

"Government officials and police were here today and they inspected everything and were very satisfied with the security at the festival."

©AFP