Promising a ‘music festival in a desert oasis’, the (deep breath) Boundless Prairie M2 Desert Electronic Music Carnival is set to take over the sexily-named Engebei Ecological Demonstration Zone near Ordos in Inner Mongolia from Friday 5-Sunday 7.
Naming issues aside, the festival has a solid line-up of Mongolian and Chinese bands and international DJs on offer and could make for an interesting alternative way to see the area’s unique landscapes.
Acts worth getting excited about include mohawk-adorned Beijing punks Brain Failure, nu-metal outfits Yaksa and Twisted Machine and thrash metalheads Suffocated. On the EDM side, Nicky Gold and Gretta (pictured below) will be jetting in from Russia to drop big beats into the desert night.
If that all sounds a bit heavy-going, one-time Super Girl finalist Mandopop singer Xu Fei will be making an appearance, while heading up the Mongolian contingent are folk-rock acts Agiimaa, Tengeriin, Tselmuun and Aadar, along with highly thought of China-based folk outfit Tulegur (pictured below).The festival is promising that in addition to live music from these artists, there will also be ‘a demonstration of Mongolian regional culture’.
As part of the event, organisers will be promoting ‘RV lifestyle’ with RVs available to camp in. And if that has you worried about the environmental impact of the festival, you’ll be relieved to know that there’ll also be a tree planting activity and a general desert protection theme.
How to get there
Ctrip.com offers two flights a day from Shanghai to Ordos on Chinia Eastern and China Southern Airlines, starting at 1,000RMB return.
Boundless Prairie Festival is at the Engebei Ecological Demonstration Zone in the Kubeqi Desert near Ordos, Inner Mongolia from Friday 5-Sunday 7. Tickets are 198RMB per day, 328RMB for two days, or 498RMB for three days (call 4001 0472 77 for details).