Electronic dance music, or EDM, is a comparatively recent musical phenomenon in the PRC.
The genre has been popular for decades in Europe and has become a billboard mainstay in the United States, but China remains relatively virgin to its catchy beats, cascading tremolo and ear-slamming drops.
It’s with this in mind that the organizers of Budweiser Storm Festival are bringing their celebration of electronic music thundering into Shenzhen next month.
The two-day music fest, which will run November 21-22, is touted as China’s largest celebration of electro music culture – although it is the inaugural year for the festival in Shenzhen, Storm Festival is charging into its third year in Shanghai.
Over the festival’s three-year history, it has earned praise for its creative stage design and ability to lure in heavy-hitting international acts. The large crowds of eclectically outfitted EDM enthusiasts that attend have also helped bolster the event’s reputation as a world-class affair.
The drug culture in America really helped the EDM culture develop so quickly there. China doesn’t have that advantage
This year’s Shanghai Budweiser Storm Festival, running October 3-4, has already announced performances from EDM heavy-hitters Skrillex, Tiesto, Laidback Luke and A-Trak, among numerous others. The Shenzhen line-up, although thinner at the moment, boasts performances by Afrojack, Fedde Le Grand, Kaskade and Showtek.
“We decided to make our expansion into Shenzhen mainly because of its close proximity to Hong Kong,” says Eric Zho, CEO of A2Live, the company behind Storm Festival. “Hong Kong has a more established relationship with electronic music.”
People in Shenzhen, much like those in Shanghai, are accustomed to international fads, making it easier to get the locals involved.
“The first year we did Storm, it was mostly foreigners that attended,” said Zho. “We are starting to see a lot more interest from Chinese people.”
Zho (pictured above) credits much of this shift in interest to a number of successful collaborations between high-profile international DJs and mainland Chinese artists. For instance, the track ‘Lose Myself,’ which brought together Swedish hitmaker Avicii and Mandopop Star Wang Leehom, has been hailed for opening up the Chinese consciousness to DJ culture. It was the world’s first mainstream Chinese EDM song, and its performance on the Middle Kingdom’s music charts was indisputably impressive.
If you are failing to see why Budweiser Storm Festival’s Shenzhen debut is big news, remember China is a country where EDM has made relatively few inroads and prominent international DJs don’t routinely perform here.
“I see where the rave culture is now in China as about where we were in the United States seven or eight years ago,” says Zho, who is originally a Los Angeles native. “The drug culture in America really helped the EDM culture develop so quickly there. China doesn’t have that advantage because there is no drug culture.”
Despite the regularly noted connection between EDM and drug use, past incarnations of Storm Festival have seen relatively few issues, according to Zho.
“You will always have some people that come in and use drugs, but for the most part there have been no problems,” he says.
“We have a good relationship with the authorities, and the festival has lots of police officers present, both uniformed and undercover.”
// For more information on Budweiser Storm Festivals Shenzhen event visit their website: a2storm.cn
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