Modern Sky records (Chinese indie rock label) has announced that “due to unforeseen circumstances, the 14 international acts originally scheduled to perform at the 2009 Modern Sky Festival will be unable to attend,” though the date and time of the annual festival—October 4-7 at Beijing’s Chaoyang Park—has not changed. There are also reports that International Noise Conspiracy has been pulled from a show at the Yuyintang club in Shanghai.
Some suggest this means that foreign bands have been banned from stages nation-wide, citing, with likely sarcasm, that the motivation is the desire to develop local talent. More likely the authorities are nervous about the potential effect of foreign rock around the 60th Anniversary of the Foundation of the People’s Republic of China. Foreign classical ballet troupes, however, seems to inspire no such discomfort: the San Francisco Ballet performs tonight through Saturday at the Poly Theatre in Beijing.
Beyonce rocks an ecstatic sold out crowd in Wukesong Arena in Beijing.