Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai

The 2017 Doumen Music Festival will be held at Shili Lianjiang Agriculture Sightseeing & Experience Garden on April 29 and 30. The first country music festival in Guangdong Province, it attracted nearly 30,000 spectators last year from the Pearl River Delta and Macao.

Performers at 2016 Doumen Music Festival

A spokesperson says the festival will shift from last year's international ambience to a rural rice-paddy field. Besides 20 renowned bands playing characterized music, there will be interactive activities such as boating, rock climbing, a parade, Magic Castle adventure, cosplay, a fashion market, and parent-child games. Audiences can also savor local specialties such as Preserved Duck Bundle -- a provincial intangible cultural heritage item -- and countryside hotchpotch.

A canopy capable of sheltering a thousand people from rain will be erected in front of the stage. The stage will also be upgraded with more dazzling light effects and a larger length of 30 m over last year's 20 m to facilitate interaction.

Dazzling light effects

Parents and children can fish for pond loaches, bundle scarecrows, or learn to sow rice while experiencing rural life and primal joys. Once the ticket is sealed, each ticketholder may get one free chance to do rock climbing, boating, or inflatable castle exploration in the game zone.  

The float parade with music accompaniment will demonstrate professional and carton figure cosplay led by the city-level intangible cultural heritage Lianzhou Di'se Street Procession. They will impersonate the Eight Immortals of Chinese mythology. Meantime, clowns hope to titillate audiences at a small stage in the greenhouse.

Staff dressed as flower fairies will pose for photos with visitors. The pictures can then be scanned using a WeChat QR code and either taken away or shared on the photo wall.   

Stage and tents at Doumen rice paddy [Photos courtesy Zhujiang Evening Post]

Moreover, the catering zone will proffer local snacks such as red bean pastries, plus chewy, Chinese mugwort or glutinous rice cakes. Facilities and foodstuff for barbecues will also be supplied in a special area. Furthermore, tents may be rented at a site near the stage.