Coastal city hitting the high notes this summer

Qingdao has hosted a variety of notable music festivals this summer as the port city in East China's Shandong province builds on its nationwide reputation as a vibrant cultural center.

During the June 22-23 Dragon Boat Festival holiday, the city welcomed the 2023 Qingdao Phoenix Music Festival at West Coast New Area, which attracted tens of thousands of fans from across the country. Featuring the latest innovations in stage presentation, the festival showcased more than 30 renowned musicians who served up everything from contemporary pop and rock to experimental electronic and diverse rap acts.

Organizers said this year's festival invited internationally acclaimed concert directors and China's top stage design teams to create a diverse and immersive gala on three specially built stages, with one for large-scale outdoor performances, another for beach music programs and the third for new-generation sets.

Qingdao also played host to the Action Airport Music Festival in the city's Chengyang district in May. The two-day event, the first of its kind to be held at a Chinese airport, featured 36 musical acts from home and abroad and attracted nearly 60,000 fans.

The city's pulsating musical vibe continues this month, with the first Star Music Festival scheduled to be held on July 22-23 and the Hi Fan Music Festival set for July 29-30. Rap and electronic carnivals and a Youth Music Festival will debut in Qingdao in August and September.

In recent years, Qingdao has taken full advantage of its coastal locale to organize an impressive series of festivals and develop its unique musical properties. Official data shows that as of June, nearly 200,000 tickets had been sold for festivals and concerts in the city to date this year — many of them to visitors. This in turn has driven the city's cultural and tourism development to new heights, particularly in the hospitality, catering and shopping sectors.

Local officials said Qingdao has improved its facilities by learning from the experience of hosting major music festivals, and that these events have created new opportunities for the cultural and tourism industries while injecting vitality into the city's economy.

While Qingdao's three-year action plan for upgrading existing facilities and constructing new ones gains momentum, the city's youth culture continues to boost its transition from an old town to a vibrant fashion area, they added.

Fans dance at the 2023 Qingdao Phoenix Music Festival held in Qingdao, Shandong province, from June 22 to 23. CHINA DAILY