Promoters Modern Sky have confirmed that their long-running Strawberry Festival will be returning to Shanghai once more for 2017. However, MYTH - their EDM-centric answer to Storm Festival - won't be happening in early April as planned, having apparently fallen foul of the recent spate of permit refusals.
'Our team was very excited to put our souls and Modern touch into bringing the MYTH experience to Shanghai once more, but unfortunately it was not meant to be,' MYTH organisers said in a post on their WeChat account this afternoon. 'We have tried everything to still make the show go on, but these changes have proven to be fully out of anybody’s control.'
As a result, you can expect Strawberry to have an even more electronic lean to the line-up than last year - possibly even with a MYTH stage. 2016's mishap-hit event (for which headliners The Prodigy didn't make it down from Beijing), featured Disclosure and Modestep as the main acts and while there's long been a DJ stage at the festival it looks like the electronic side of things could take more prominence this year.
While there's no official line-up information available just yet, tickets are already on sale and it's been confirmed that Strawberry is due to be held over the May holiday at its tried and tested spot on the banks of the Huangpu. Long press and extract the QR code below to buy tickets for Strawberry Festival.
Aside from the dates and the location, Modern Sky have also revealed the all-important theme for 2017: The loners parade. Keep an eye on our dedicated Shanghai Strawberry Festival 2017 page for more information, including the complete confirmed line-up when we have it.
Elsewhere, China's longest-running music fest brand Midi is also offering up some festival fun again this year. Their event will be at the same Tai Lake-side park on the outskirts of Suzhou that their metal and hard rock-focused festival has called home for the last few years.
Again, the full line-up is yet to be officially announced, but apparently American deathcore act Whitechapel and Slovenian metal outfit Noctiferia will be among the bands playing. Also, there'll be a swimming pool on site and it's one of the few festivals in and around Shanghai that offers camping:
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