What was supposed to be celebration of music, mud, and Midi freedom turned into a controversy that captured widespread attention on Chinese social media this week, as reports of looting surfaced online. As online discussions continue, people do not agree on who is to blame for the incident and the widespread attention for it.

The city of Nanyang in Henan has been all the talk on Chinese social media over the past few days due to large amounts of personal belongings getting stolen during the Central Midi Festival (中原迷笛音乐节).

The Midi Festival, founded by the Beijing Midi School of Music, is among China’s largest and most influential rock music festivals. Midi has been around for some thirty years, with variations in themes and taking place in different locations.

The most recent edition was held in Nanyang from September 29 to October 2nd. It drew approximately 150,000 visitors who flocked to Henan to have a good time, enjoy the music, dance in the mud, and stay at the camp site throughout the multi-day festival.

The local government had hoped that hosting the festival would help promote the city and make it more popular among young people. To create a positive impression, the entire city, including a remarkable 40,000 volunteers, local authorities, hotels, and transportation companies, dedicated their efforts to ensure the success of the Midi Festival. The mayor even personally welcomed festival-goers at the train station.

 
Free-for-all Festival
 

However, it seems that some locals had different intentions. They watched the festivities from behind the fences, and then started coming in and entering the camp sites. When they found unattended tents, as the owners were enjoying the music, they started stealing items from inside.

What began as isolated incidents soon escalated. More people joined in, more items were stolen, and the thieves grew bolder, sometimes even stealing from tents while their owners were present and trying to stop them.

There’s a video circulating showing an older lady rummaging through a festivalgoer’s tent while he filmed the scene. The lady casually stated, “I’ll take your camp light, dear,” and informed him of her theft.

Even sponsors and official vendors at the festival site fell victim to theft, as people entered their areas and stole their products and merchandise to resell later. There were reports of chairs and cables being stolen – essential items for a smooth-running festival.

Although security guards and police did intervene when the looting began, they allegedly just sent the thieves away at first without apprehending them. Some festivalgoers claimed to have lost personal items valued at over 10,000 RMB ($1,388).

By now, as the incident has gained national attention via social media, the case is being thorougly researched. The local police have received a total of 73 reports and they have confirmed 65 cases of theft. Some of the thieves have been arrested, and some of the stolen items have been recovered.

 
It Started with a Rumor
 

How could the festival looting get so out of control? According to local authorities in Nanyang, the incident began when a short video platform user known as “Wuyu” (无语) posted a video on October 2nd, falsely claiming that all the tents at the festival were available for taking as the event had ended and the premises needed to be cleared.

This rumor soon widely circulated, and prompted nearby villagers to come to the site to see what they could get.

The person behind the “Wuyu” account, identified as Chen Feng (陈峰), has since been identified and was taken into custody by the police.

On October 5, the Midi Festival released a statement on Weibo, reassuring the public that the festival and the local government are working together to try their best and recover all stolen items.

Statement by Midi.

Midi also lashed out against online ‘trolls’ who were hyping up the situation at Midi to smear the festival and the city’s reputation. The festival condemned both the small group of thieves and the larger group of online trolls.

 
Provincial Prejudice
 

The controversy has generated a lot of anger, not just among visitors and the festival organization staff, but also among local Nanyang authorities who had invested considerable effort into making the festival a success.

The incident has cast a shadow over Midi. In an online poll conducted by Fengmian Redian (@封面热点), a majority of respondents indicated that they would not want to attend the festival after this happened, expressing their disappointment over the looting.

The controversy also reflects badly on Henan, where people already face provincial prejudice. Henan is often characterized as a poor and unrefined province, associated with phone scammers or people who would even steal manhole covers to sell them for scrap metal, causing dangerous situations.

The Midi Festival controversy has perpetuated these stereotypes about the people of Henan, much to the dismay of local residents who have been actively working to challenge and dispel public biases against the province.

 
Rock ‘n’ Roll Chaos
 

While many Weibo users come to Nanyang’s defense, there are also those who stress that the local authorities should have taken more steps to improve security around the festival site.

Image by Midi, reposted by @后沙月光本尊 .

Others, however, do not agree. They argue that the Midi Festival, in Woodstock style, is about chaos, rock ‘n’ roll, and freedom. They think that the festival should not be overly controlled and that people should not blame the organization or local governments for not looking after their stuff.

Festival attendees and dedicated rock music enthusiasts argue that Midi, Nanyang, and the Chinese fans and musicians turned the festival into a great success.

Photos on Xiaohongshu capturing the atmosphere at Midi in Nanyang.

They suggest that the theft incident should not be attributed to them nor reflect badly on China’s thriving music scene; it was simply the result of immoral behavior from a few individuals who failed to grasp the spirit of the event.

Meanwhile, the entire incident has not just triggered anger; it has also become a source of banter and online jokes.

Some Henan natives are not exactly helping to promote their home province. One widely-shared comment referred to the Henan bank protests, stating: “If even the money we deposit in the bank can disappear, it’s no surprise that things can go missing at a music festival.”

By Manya Koetse and Miranda Barnes

with contributions by Miranda Barnes

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During this National Day public holiday, scenic spots all over China are crowded with tourists.

One spot that is especially popular this year is Dunhuang in Gansu. Six kilometers south of the city you find the “Singing Sand Mountains & Crescent Moon Spring” (鸣沙山月牙泉). The area features 40 kilometers of mountains, expansive sand dunes, and a crescent-shaped lake. These landscapes are known as some of the great landscapes of Dunhuang.

Over the past few days, the huge crowds visiting the area have attracted attention on Chinese social media, where people joke about the ‘camel jams’ (堵骆驼) happening due to so many tourists doing camel rides in the scenic area, causing enormous lines of camels throughout the desert (see video).

Massive lines of camels in the desert near Dunhuang. (What’s on Weibo screenshot, video by Ctrip Adviser 携程旅行顾问.

To regulate the traffic at camel intersections, the area has even set up special camel traffic lights, supposedly to reduce congestion and improve the camel flow. The camel traffic lights (骆驼红绿灯) were set up earlier this year at two intersections between pedestrian walkways and camel paths, becoming a popular new tourist spot for taking photos.

The scenic area is seeing a record-breaking number of visitors this year, with the total number of visitors received up to October 3 reaching nearly 3.5 million, breaking the previous annual visitor record of approximately 2.5 million visitors in 2019.

The crowds usually arrive during summer, which is when you will seen those scenes of seemingly endless caravans of camels marching across the desert. But this year’s May holiday also saw huge crowds flocking to Dunhuang and the Singing Sand Mountains area.

Besides riding camels, people also come to the scenic area to take photos, admire the surroundings, see the sunrise or sunset, and sometimes to enjoy special performances or shows arranged by the local tourism board to entertain visitors.

Drone show in Dunhuang, via a Dunhuang official account on Weibo.

This National Day holiday, there are also nightly aerial drone light shows from 20:30 to 20:50. Set against the night sky, these shows are themed around the Silk Road, as a tribute to Dunhuang’s historical role as an important strategic and military point within the Silk Road network.

In light of this history, Chinese netizens find the enormous camel tourist troops especially funny. “If I didn’t know [it was a scenic spot], I’d think it was a military campaign involving city sieges,” one Weibo commenter said, with other social media users comparing it to “an expedition mission.”

Some Chinese tourists riding camels in the area during the busy scenes complained on social media: “I came here for a vacation, but those who don’t know better might think I’m on a mission to conquer the Xiongnu!”

The ‘camel jam’ phenomenon is not especially new. In pre-Covid years, there were also reports about massive traffic jams of hundreds of camels stuck in long queues.

Besides the crowds in Dunhuang, people also posted videos and images of other places. From Nanchang (amazing crowds) to Xi’an, from Shanghai to Wuhan.

This National Day holiday, also Mid-Autumn Festival, started September 29, and will last until to October 6. This extended vacation period gives people a total of eight days to relax and explore.

Domestic travel is especially booming this holiday. According to online platforms like Meituan and Dianping, tourism consumption orders on the platforms for the public holiday doubled compared with 2019.

Crowds in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing.

With so many places being crowded (see video), the hashtag “Which place is empty during this holiday?” (#假期到底哪个城市空了#) became popular on Weibo, especially among those looking for a quiet spot this week.

“It’s empty in my university,” some said: “Watching all these crowds, I’d just rather stay at home.”

By Manya Koetse

with contributions by Miranda Barnes

Follow @whatsonweibo

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