Chinese rock festival organisers say they are being ‘smeared’ with ‘exaggerated’ complaints about thefts at Henan event headlined by Cui Jian
- Organisers of the four-day event in Nanyang city in Henan admit thieves targeted some festival goers, but downplay the scale of the problem
- Cities across China are competing to attract visitors during the current holiday period, with officials alert to the risks from bad publicity
The organisers of a rock festival in central China have complained they are being “smeared” over a number of reported thefts at the site.
Numerous festival goers at the Central China Midi Festival, which took place from Friday to Monday in Nanyang, a city in Henan province, took to social media to report that many of their belongings – including tents, mobile phones, bank cards, cash, clothes, shoes, notebooks and even wristbands – had been stolen from the venue and camping area.
A statement from the event’s organising committee confirmed that some concertgoers had items stolen, but complained that the problem was being exaggerated.
Hashtags relating to the complaints on Weibo had attracted more than 210 million views and over 24,000 comments by Thursday evening, becoming the hottest trending topic on the social media platform at one point.
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The four-day festival, which organisers said had attracted more than 150,000 visitors, took place during a major holiday period that includes both the Mid-Autumn Festival and China’s national day – a period when cities across the country are competing to attract visitors.
Midi is one of China’s first music festival brands, created by the Beijing Midi School of Music, which was founded three decades ago.
The local authorities in Nanyang had high hopes that the festival – whose headliners included Cui Jian, sometimes described as the “father of Chinese rock” would help boost the local economy and attract younger visitors.
The local Communist Party chief and mayor greeted concertgoers at the local railway station on Friday, according to official media reports, and on Tuesday, the Nanyang Daily newspaper touted the event as a “huge success” that would “help Nanyang go abroad through music”.
But on Thursday organisers issued a statement about the thefts on Weibo, saying: “Certain organisations have deliberately exaggerated [the issue] and smeared Nanyang and Midi using the internet, and even spent money to buy trending topics to fan the flames.”
However, it said that the local police had received 73 reports of theft, 65 of which had been confirmed, adding that some suspects had already been detained and some of the stolen goods recovered.
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It also said that some online reports had exaggerated the value of the property stolen, saying the police had yet to find any cases where individuals had lost tens of thousands of yuan in property (the equivalent of more than US$1,400).
The committee said it reserved the right to take legal action and that “relevant departments” had had evidence to prove its complaints.
It also said that it had deleted an earlier statement about the thefts published on Tuesday because of “a significant number of comments smearing Henan and Nanyang” and insisted the festival would go ahead next year.
The organisers also said that one internet user had been detained after posting a “false message” on Tuesday morning saying the site needed to be cleaned up.
They said this had prompted locals to go to the camp site and start removing property even though many people had spent the night there and had yet to pack up and go home.
The organisers’ statement attracted more than 10,500 comments, many of them critical. “The organisers should bear some responsibility for not ensuring sufficient security, right? It feels like they aren’t addressing their own problems,” one Weibo-user in Shandong province wrote.
But others defended the comments, with one saying: “Some old-fashioned people don’t know how much damage this will cause to the city.”
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The local authorities also issued a statement, expressing “profound apologies” and promising to compensate fans for any stolen items.
Cities across China have been turning to events such as music festivals and concerts to boost growth as the country tries to boost its lukewarm post-Covid economic recovery – putting local officials on high alert for any negative publicity that might scare away visitors.
Major music events can bring in several billion yuan when the visitors’ total expenditure on things like food, accomodation and shopping are taken into account.
Nanyang’s local economy grew just 4.7 per cent in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2022, lagging behind the national average of 5.5 per cent.
