Jade Bird festival off to a flyer

Lu Xiaofeng and Fei Lai

Wearing a black T-shirt and white baseball cap, leading Chinese rocker Cui Jian ap-peared at the Shanghai Automobile Exhibition Center stage on April 13 on the bill of the Jiading Luhang Jade Bird Music Festival.

Cui performed six songs, which had the crowd screaming and cheering enthusiastically.

Taking place for the first time, there were concerns when the Jade Bird Mu-sic Festival attracted only 2,000 people

on Friday. However, large crowds flocked to the event the following day.

Qiu Wei, an Anting resident, arrived early and queued for five hours in order to get a front row seat for the performance of famous Chinese rock star Wang Feng. “As a rock fan, Wang’s performance excites me,” Qiu said. “But I also like the other singers.”

Other fans also said they enjoyed the support acts — unusual in China. Nonetheless, Cui and Wang were the highlights of the event.

Organizers were delighted by the

enthusiasm of the audience.

“Having seen the passion of the crowd, we’ll definitely be back next year,” said Chen Yiqun, vice president of Beida Jade Bird Group.

Xu Xiaofeng, CEO of Beida Jade Bird Group was pleased with main attrac-tions Cui and Wang. “They are the leading players in Chinese rock music, and this was the first time they per-formed at same music festival.

“To mark the occasion we also invited famous bands such as Shanren, HAYA and Gold Buddha.”