Beijing, one of China's largest urban areas, has seen its host of music festivals across a number of genres drop as the authorities are making it almost impossible for large groups of people to gather for any reason. The cause for the cancellations isn't the usual paranoia from the government, but rather fear that potential disasters at such events could result in a black eye for the Central Government, which is located out of the city. Analysts have traced the crackdown to the New Year's event where 36 Shanghai citizens were killed in a stampede. President Xi Jinping ordered an investigation into culpability for the tragedy, and now no government official wants bad news coming to his desk.
"The Beijing municipality is where all the 'emperor' figures are," said Dr. Willy Lam, a professor of China Studies at Akita International University, to VICE News. "Officials are paranoid about running foul of President Xi and other powerful figures so they don't take any chances there."
Essentially, the closer the location to President Xi, the less likely that a major event such as a music festival is going to happen.
How do officials enforce their will? The obvious solution is by having promoters file safety reports in advance. However, when those are up to code, further red tape is added, such as requiring concert planners to send in lyrics for all of the acts performing. It seems unlikely that the government is actually nervous about anti-authority messages but rather seeks to provide potential hosts with near impossible tasks to prevent the concert from taking place.
So far it's been working. The Strawberry Festival, an event in play since 2009, was denied permit for the first time this year. MIDI, another major event, moved its festival 740 miles to Suzhou after 17 years in Beijing. EDM festival INTRO opted to move 40 minutes outside of Beijing proper.
Right now the 11.5 million residents in Beijing need to look elsewhere for music festivals.
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