Fuxian Hu Music Festival

Back in August, I went to a festival that really inspired this whole project, held at the beautiful Fuxian Lake in Yunnan.

It was a 3 day festival, held from the 24th to the 26th of August.

We ended up arriving on the night of the 25th, with sleeping bags, a bottle of vodka and a bag of almonds, basically the essentials for a pretty unique festival. The two stages were set up right next to the lake, which meant that you could swim in the warm waters while while watching the bands on stage. It doesn’t really get much better than that!

I was lucky enough to win two free tickets to the festival and we managed to hitch free rides on the way there and back. Luckily the weather was good and we danced (and swam!) to some great music provided by one of our favourite Yunnan bands Sigangli (司岗里) with their take on traditional Wa minority music.

We continued the night drifting away to the sounds of Tribal Trip until the plug was pulled and the music moved from the stage to around the fire.

What is it about dancing around a bonfire that makes you feel SO good? Despite attempts by security of putting the fire out festival-goers piled on the cardboard boxes and kept going till 4 in the morning. We weren’t brave enough to jump the fire like some, but “joined in” with shaking bottles of pebbles to keep the beat going!

After an hour or two of shuffling round the fire trying to avoid the smoke we found a relatively sheltered spot and called it a night, curling up in our sleeping bags on the beach only to wake up to some locals taking photos of us, the foreigners, crazy enough to be sleeping out there! Nursing our hang-overs with steaming bowls of noodles and plenty of water we relaxed on the beach and had a final dip in the lake.

The surrounding  Luchong Scenic Area is beautiful and definitely worth exploring for a day or two. You can climb up the hill above the lake and get a great view from the little temple.

It was a perfect weekend and just a short trip out of Kunming.

So, see you next year?

Have a listen to…

http://site.douban.com/TribalTrip/

http://site.douban.com/SiGangLi/room/954810/

I posted this a while back on follow the drums, which is taking a break right now..