Shijiazhuang： Why does rock move this city？

What’s your first reaction when you mention Shijiazhuang?

Xibaipo, industrial city, drug capital, Zhengding County, Zhao Zhouqiao … Different people may give different answers.

In recent years, Shijiazhuang has a young, dynamic and energetic business card, which is being known by more and more people-"Rock Home Town Rock City".

"Zhuang" is burning and hi.

On the stage, Miserable Faith, the lead singer, shouted "Shijiazhuang", and the fans in the audience responded to "Rock and Roll" in unison, and repeated several times to push the atmosphere to a climax. This is the scene at the end of Hutuo Music Festival on October 15, 2023. Even though the lights have been extinguished, the audience still refuses to disperse. The author stood among tens of thousands of people, infected by this atmosphere, and shouted "Shijiazhuang!" "Rock and roll!"

Nearly a year later, this music festival, with an audience of 62,000 and foreign fans accounting for 70%, is still talked about by people.

Looking back on 2023, Shijiazhuang invited more than 130 famous rock bands to perform more than 100 rock music performances for the benefit of the people, attracting more than 1 million fans. Many large-scale music performances such as Shijiazhuang Original Music Festival, Hutuo Music Carnival and Hutuo Music Festival brought audio-visual feasts to fans.

In 2024, Shijiazhuang Rock will continue!

In front of long summer this year, the performance of "Passionate Summer Night" kicked off at the Wanli Temple Pedestrian Street in Shijiazhuang. "Friends of Shijiazhuang, are you ready?" "Ready!"

"I really look forward to it for a long time and feel very excited." Liu Yilin, a college student, said, "I have brushed a lot of videos of Shijiazhuang rock music performance season before, and I feel particularly burning and embarrassed. I finally came to the scene, and this impact is stronger."

"I love rock music! I love Shijiazhuang! " On May 4th, 2024 Shijiazhuang Original Music Festival kicked off in Shijiazhuang Industrial Heritage Park, and the Melody Band made a passionate debut, and the dynamic melody instantly mobilized the atmosphere of the audience. Xiaoyu band blended flute and guzheng into rock music, and the audience lamented that "rock music can still be played like this". Relativity Band and Hanggai band made their final appearance, which pushed the atmosphere to a climax. In this ruins park with the style of "Cyberpunk", rock lights up the night sky.

On the evening of August 3rd, the lights were colorful, the music was dynamic, the stage was gorgeous, and the fluorescence was flashing. The rock music performance "Between Mountains and Waters" was performed in the Fanpai Sports Park in Yuanshi County, Shijiazhuang, and the wharf French fries band and the shining band took turns to appear. The songs such as "Sudden Self", "Train Diary" and "Anti-war" triggered the chorus of the audience.

It’s more than that. In Xinle City, Jingxing County, Shijiazhuang, in characteristic commercial districts, summer beer gardens and commercial complexes, multi-point and continuous rock performances are on the scene. From the end of April to September this year, Shijiazhuang plans to organize 80 performances of "Passionate Summer Night" and "Weekend Lawn" in five districts of the city; From the end of April to October, 120 performances between mountains and rivers were organized in scenic spots, campsites, self-driving RV camps, county-level characteristic commercial streets and night economic gathering areas.

"Through three forms: weekend lawn, passionate summer night and mountains and rivers, Shijiazhuang has made rock music performances for the benefit of the people into open green spaces, parks, characteristic commercial blocks, commercial complexes and scenic spots, cultivated new cultural consumption formats, and further enriched people’s cultural life." Han Zhenmin, deputy director of Shijiazhuang Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film and Tourism, introduced strawberry music festival and new youth rock music festival to unlock the new mode of "music+cultural travel" and expand the new experience of people’s cultural life.

Why Shijiazhuang?

"I got off work at 6 o’clock in the evening, changed my clothes in the pharmaceutical factory, my wife was cooking porridge, and I went to drink a few bottles of beer." "The high school attached to Hebei Normal University, the table tennis teenager turned his back on me, silently watched, and couldn’t leave the classroom."

Omnipotent youth society Band was born in Shijiazhuang, and its songs are also sung in Shijiazhuang. The narrative style and singing method make this song always have a high degree of singing.

When Shijiazhuang showed its "Rock Home Town" business card, it was also questioned: Why is Shijiazhuang a rock city?

From the perspective of development, Popular Songs, dubbed as "the first issue of Chinese rock", was born in Shijiazhuang in 1986, and since then, I love rock music was born here. Music critic Red Tide once said in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the publication of Popular Songs: The position of this pamphlet in the Chinese rock music scene is equivalent to the nine-year compulsory education of rock music, which has made great contributions to the enlightenment and popularization of rock music.

The rich rock soil has produced many famous rock musicians in Shijiazhuang. In addition, there are dozens of rock bands active in Shijiazhuang all the year round. Besides omnipotent youth society, Click#15 and Penicillin also have deep roots with Shijiazhuang.

"The audience in Shijiazhuang is very enthusiastic, and the rock atmosphere in this city is great!" Shao Zhuang, the lead singer of Relativity Band, is a native of Shijiazhuang and has been engaged in rock music for more than 20 years. He said: "Shijiazhuang is closely related to rock music, and many excellent bands have emerged here. Now Shijiazhuang is vigorously building a’ rock city’, and we musicians also very much hope to contribute to our hometown. "

The strong support of Shijiazhuang Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government is also an important factor. In 2021, the work report of the municipal government proposed to create a new fashion of modern music with "Rock Home Town" as a unique brand. In the government work report of 2024, it was proposed that the IP of two major cities of "music" and "sports" should be continuously built, and the seven aspects of "people, music, teams, instruments, venues, meetings and standards" should be exerted, and music training, musical instrument rental and sales, theater performances and other formats should be concentrated in Heping East Road area; Invite internationally renowned bands to hold rock music season regularly and polish the brand of "Rock Home Town".

Not just rock and roll.

What has the Rock City brought to Shijiazhuang?

Show charm. Doing a good job in "Rock+"articles and deeply integrating catering, cultural tourism, shopping and other diversified formats, Shijiazhuang has planned and launched a series of measures to promote the integration and consumption of cultural tourism, such as subway delay, bus line, rock gift package and scenic spot discount. "The realization of rock elements all over the city, rock images can be seen everywhere, and the topic of rock is constantly hot, which has aroused widespread concern and deep resonance in the whole society." Zhang Hui, Party Secretary of Shijiazhuang Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film and Tourism, said that it is necessary to create a strong atmosphere of Shijiazhuang’s "Rock Home Town" in China, highlight the brand concept, brand value and brand image of Shijiazhuang’s "Rock City", and make Shijiazhuang a charming city integrating music, entertainment, food and tourism.

Gather popularity. According to the data of "Rock Home Town" in 2023-"Rock City" in China, more than 100 music performances attracted more than 1 million people. During the performance season, the night passenger flow of more than 160 enterprises in Shijiazhuang increased significantly, and the night sales accounted for 33% of the whole day’s turnover, up 14% year-on-year.

From the Spring Festival to the May Day holiday, the tourist popularity of Shijiazhuang has steadily increased on the basis of the previous high level, and Zhengding Ancient City has become one of the popular attractions in China.

At the 2023 Hutuo Salon Music Festival Roundtable Dialogue on Industrial Development, experts attending the meeting believed that Shijiazhuang brought music into people’s lives, which not only stimulated the vitality of the city, but also promoted the development of cultural tourism, commerce and other industries.

Promote consumption. Listening to rock and roll, visiting ancient cities and enjoying beautiful scenery have become a must for many fans. "I watched the passionate rock music performance in the evening and came to Zhengding Ancient City to punch in during the day." Liu Xiaodong, a tourist from Guangxi, said that he came for a rock performance, but he didn’t want the local characteristic culture to be very attractive.

During the Strawberry Music Festival in Shijiazhuang and the concert tour in Angela Zhang this year, about 440,000 tourists from other places came to Shijiazhuang, which directly led to the consumption of transportation, accommodation, catering, tourism and shopping of about 240 million yuan.

"Rock T-shirts, rock badges and rock wenchuang ice cream are fans’ favorite’ three-piece sets’. We have designed more than 90 rock element cultural and creative products in 20 categories. " Zhai Kaikuang, general manager of Shijiazhuang Rock City Brand Management Co., Ltd. said that at present, they have set up fixed sales points in Shijiazhuang Liberation Memorial Hall and some hotels, and opened online sales.

Revitalize industries. With the goal of industrialization, the city plans to build Shijiazhuang "Town" series performance space cluster and promote the infrastructure construction of the music industry. We will gradually develop the Shigang Industrial Ruins Park and the Mian Yi Mian Er Lao Factory, and strive to create a music art space integrating exhibition, creation and performance around the industrial elements of "performance".

In addition to tangible results, rock and roll brings Shijiazhuang more promotion of city image and reputation. In the view of Zhang Fan, president of Midi Music School, Shijiazhuang created a new IP of the city by holding a rock music performance season, which enhanced the city’s popularity and reputation, and made a large number of fans come to Shijiazhuang to learn about Shijiazhuang, making the city more dynamic and passionate.

"The music festival with the theme of rock and roll attracted bands and music lovers from all over the country to participate, which enhanced the popularity and influence of Shijiazhuang and injected new vitality into urban development." Zhang Yawen, deputy general manager of Shijiazhuang Wenlv Investment Group Culture and Sports Company, said.

After beginning of autumn, the North China Plain is slightly autumn, but Shijiazhuang Rock is still online, with full firepower to build a "music" city IP, showing a new impression and new symbol of self-confidence, vitality and openness. Once an industrial city, with the help of this new business card of rock and roll, it is moving towards a modern, international and beautiful provincial capital city that is "proud of locals and yearned for by outsiders".