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Rated as the "Best Domestic Post-Rock Music Festival of 2023" by music fans - Offside Festival will be held in Dongtan, Xiangshan, Ningbo from November 1st to 3rd, with the slogan “Bring post-rock back from headphones to live venues, let's go offside together!”
The Offside Festival is an attempt born out of a keen insight into the music festival market and continuous forward exploration. It is part of the Midi Art Week activities, representing an experimental effort to tap into niche markets and focus on refined content in the context of China's rapidly developing but increasingly homogeneous music festival industry.
Following last year’s almost unanimous high praise, this year's Offside Festival not only returns in its original flavor but also, under the professional calculation support of Carbonstop, a global leading carbon management service provider, turns the concept of sustainability into something more tangible. Since its inaugural event last year, the Offside Festival has advocated the principle of a "zero-trace music festival," aiming to promote enjoying music responsibly and treating the natural environment around us kindly. This is achieved through measures such as providing eco-friendly plastic bags, promoting the recycling and reuse of materials, and achieving environmental goals during the music festival.
Not only reported by the Associated Press, the Offside Festival has also caught the attention of DUNK!, the world's largest post-rock music festival. In a domestic music festival scene that is gradually becoming repetitive, the emergence of independent vertical music festivals not only offers music enthusiasts a brand new live music experience but also opens up more imaginative space for the future appearance of the music festival market.
From the pure music without vocals, the Live venue close to nature, to the comfortable and relaxed activity areas, and the introverted music fans who can lie down anywhere, the Offside Festival constructs a sincere dialogue where individuals return to their natural primitive state through the form of post-rock music. In this atmosphere melody close to pure sound and light, it maintains a contemplation of the relationship with the natural environment.
For most people, "post-rock" is a relatively unfamiliar genre of music.
Post-rock, in full "postmodern rock," originated at the end of the 1990s. Simply put, it is "instrumental rock without a lead vocalist." Structurally, it opposes the "verse-chorus" pattern, emphasizing the creation of ambiance, and returning from lyrical expression to the music itself.
Songs do not have too many repetitive sections and are not controlled within the typical 3-4 minute duration; the vast majority of post-rock songs exceed 5 minutes, and there are even tracks lasting 15 or 20 minutes.
Because lyrics do not "interfere," the music mainly provides "atmosphere" rather than "visual imagery." Therefore, a true post-rock music festival will not feature as many visual elements as other music festivals, such as stage lighting and special effects. Instead, it focuses more on the expressiveness and emotional transmission of the music itself, allowing people to concentrate more on the music when appreciating it.
"Amid countless resonances and surges of life, we discovered a somewhat serene frequency. We abandoned the convenience brought by a unified language and connected only through music. Creating echoes in the deep bamboo forests of Anji Yucun, as accomplices, we successfully went offside."
Last year's inaugural Offside Festival was held in Anji, Huzhou. As the birthplace of the concept "Green waters and green mountains are as valuable as gold and silver," the quiet village linked the experience of listening to instrumental performances without lyrics with the enjoyment of green waters and mountains. Choosing Ningbo's Dongtan for this year's event allows music fans to realize the imagination of "watching the sunset while feeling the sea breeze and lying on the beach listening to post-rock." The performance venues located between the mountains and waters of small towns seem to call out for an escape from the hustle and bustle of big cities, once again embracing ancient rural areas, and experiencing the interaction rhythm of notes and nature amidst the drizzle, the whisper of forests, and the crashing waves.
Post-rock bands' musical themes often combine with nature and the environment, expressing concern and reflection on nature and the environment through music, such as God Is An Astronaut's Origins.
After the domestic music festival market "blossomed everywhere" in recent years, what followed was crude replication, mixed quality, and a high degree of homogenization due to resource scarcity in the domestic music market. As a music festival with a single and very niche style, Offside lacks the headlining bands commonly seen at major music festivals and does not have the extensive list of dozens or even hundreds of artists found at other festivals. This also means that it may attract fewer brands for sponsorship cooperation than some well-known music festivals, making it difficult to generate significant revenue.
Its near-idealistic dedication to niche music, connecting music and fans, truly brings music back to its essence.
Offside has consistently linked music philosophy with live events, advocating a zero-trace music festival, "more love, less waste," by providing eco-friendly plastic bags and cigarette pouches for proper disposal, suggesting carrying fewer plastic items and reducing the use of disposable products. All materials used at the music festival will be made from canvas fabric as much as possible, and after use, they will be centrally recycled to the Kendo Shenzhen Changju Plan partner factory for recycling and reprocessing.
Post-rock fans are audiophiles who pay attention to acoustic effects, and they have extremely high standards for the quality of music, the effect of sound systems, the details of the live event, and the emotional expression. They value the emotional expression in the music, identifying with purity, longevity, focus, outdoors, mountains and seas, nature, niche, and idealism.
Just like the audience of post-rock music, practitioners deeply involved in the low-carbon sector also exhibit traits of long-term commitment and focus on the natural environment. That idealism of persistently doing difficult but right things resonates with the post-rock ethos among these two niche groups.
This year's Offside Festival will bring these partners together.
- 「Xihai Coffee」will bring the "Ocean Partners" recycling cabin, where fans can deposit plastic cups, bottles, etc., into the recycling machine and earn "carbon credits" rewards to exchange for Xihai Coffee or cultural and creative products made from recycled plastics, reshaping discarded items into new life.
- 「Dream Office OneiroSpace」, which is currently on hiatus, will specially present a small interactive exhibition at the Offside Festival site, inviting fans to explore the value "beyond waste."
- 「IsleLife」, as a strategic ecological partner in dual carbon strategies with Carbonstop, will collaborate with Carbonstop to assist the music festival in reducing carbon emissions throughout the process and organizing garbage sorting and beach cleaning activities, bringing a sustainable consumption pop-up store to the site for fans.
As a global leading provider of carbon emission management, 「Carbonstop」will calculate the carbon footprint of multiple scenarios over the three-day music festival, including but not limited to the carbon emissions generated by the transportation methods of all performing artists, staff, and audiences traveling to and from the music festival site, the carbon emissions from temporary structures (such as stages, audience seats, sales points, etc.) built at the music festival site, energy consumption from power supply, lighting, and sound equipment, and the production and disposal of paper, plastic, and other materials used for promotional materials, tickets, souvenirs, etc. By conducting meticulous carbon emission assessments from preparation to conclusion, it allows fans to reflect on the relationship between humans and the Earth in the interplay of specific figures and emotional melodies.
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Although we are different individuals from all over, we are in sync when it comes to our attitude towards nature.
