I would like to go to some pop/rock/hiphop/etc music concerts with top artists, whether they be Chinese or international. In fact the type of music is not the most important - mostly I like the atmosphere of a big crowd of fans. Do I have to go to a bigger city? I've been in KM a while but all I ever see advertised is local bands. Are any of them any good?
One thing that Kunming seems to be missing is big (name) concerts. I do know some booking agents and have done shows in the past in the states. I looked into it when i first moved here, thinking about starting a production company! I am not sure the money is here. I only looked into djs and hip hop as flying a whole band over here would cost ALOT! but even with just one DJ (big name) your looking at about 5-10k us$ just to get them to come out here and stay for a couple night..not to mention real sound! Most bigger names would be pissed if they had to play on Kunming sound systems!
If you really wanted to book a top name I would wait till someone in a main city(Beijing, shanghai) fly's them down. then try to book them once they are already in country, or on an Asian tour already.
It depends what you mean by big name. The Great Apes played at the Mask the other week.
There's a Taiwanese pop star coming in a few weeks. Forget his name. Will post if I find out. You could also try searching Douban.com
Yes, there are famous artists coming to Kunming sometimes... Not often though. If they do, it's on the GoKunming calendar.
If you want a big stage and a big crowd, you might want to check out the national finals of the Tiger Beer's Battle of the Bands on August 31st at the old airport. it will certainly be like last year:
www.gokunming.com/[...]
the big name this year is a singer/actor called Zhou Xiao Ou (周晓鸥).
There's also a big music festival next month that has just been announced...
@Philou
Do you have a link or anything for the music festival?
Johnny Nevada plays here all the time.
Me personally I like the smaller gigs and they are pretty good here in Kunming, not that often and big as in BJ or SH but they feel as great as they do in other laces.
I wish I would have time to go to one festival soon. I haven't been to any Yunnan ones.
Sometimes some Asian pop stars perform in Yunnan, wasn't Faye Wang here a year or two ago?
@Bjtokmg
Sorry for highjacking, but if you are still interested in the event management thing let me know, I may still be able to warm up a few contacts....for anyone else trying, this might help.
I would contact the record labels 'MaybeMars' or 'Modern Sky' (Rock in China, for promotion) for bigger Chinese/Asian acts or their more famous brothers, Warner, Sony etc at their Asian branches, and the sponsors they usually associate with (Gibson, Converse...etc.).
The key is to find enough potential ticket buyers for the recors labels to get an interest in your gig. Most of it will go by "If you find sponsors, and a location, we bring superstar 'such-and-so' and if you go to sponsors and say I could get superstar 'such-and-so' would you support if I some stars performing. Lots of calling and travelling to kiss a** of mid level managers.
At least in China it works that way, since contracts mean very little.
Worked in Beijing for the art scene a little and even for smaller gigs you got some good bands for events and gigs if you knew someone or sold the event well to them.
So in my opinion, Open Air festivals, would be good for Yunnan, in terms of space, weather and local governments trying to get their villages and local economy promoted. And Imagine an open air with big names and the mountains in the background, good music, "....me like, very much!!".
Actually I thought about it for a while but than due to my business start up, dropped the idea.
Also emerging western bands still not arrogant enough to play for a smaller crowd would be interested since they all live on selling CD's.
I met this Norwegian Jazz trio in Beijing at the MIDI-Jazz festival they told me they sold more CD's at one Chinese Gig than at ten European shows combines, due to demand and bigger crowd.
So I think, niches, good research, local support and some connections with labels and bands would bring together a great gig, if you push them to the right incentive.
I think most big acts have their own sound systems and engineers. If not there are good rental agents in Shanghai and Beijing (plus HK) of course.
In Beijing there is this (a little...justified) arrogant "Weird Al Yankovich-lookalike" sound engineer riding a red corvette, he is the best you can get, besides YuLi Chen [...Rest in Peace]. At least that's what I was told (But I don't know s**t about sound).
I think DJ's are easier promote, as you said. If you catch one in HK on his/her way back from their Japan promo tour, and offer him a great club, sound and 5 star hotel (luxury is cheap in China), DJ or DJane might be interested for less the usual rate. Again it just needs a special location, promotion and good crowd.
I did think about it.. I was going to try to bring out a bigger hip hop Dj. But ultimately I put the numbers together and decided i did not want to take on the risk. Now that i have lived here a while and been around the scene a little bit, I am glad i did not. hahaha Like i said before, I am not sure that Kunming is the place for something to take off like that right now...I bet in 3-5 years It would look better...Chengdu is way better then it was 3 years ago! I dont think people in kunming would pay the big ticket price you would need to make money right now..of course for a huge Chinese pop star they would! Like you were saying if somebody wanted to try, I would love to help..at the least I could get in contact with some talent. But I don't think i would do it, .....right now, anyways.
