The past May Day holiday, on May 1-5, the second long break after this year's Spring Festival, saw another massive population migration: Tens of thousands of people, armed with glow sticks, power banks and celebrity merchandise, flocked to cities including Wuhan, Chengdu and Haikou, where their beloved bands, stars and a big reunion with their fellow live music enthusiasts awaited.

Thirty-one-year-old Zhou Xinyan was one of them. On April 30, she boarded a train from Guiyang in southwest China's Guizhou Province to Beijing, to see her favorite artists at the Strawberry Music Festival, which took place in the capital's Yanqing District on May 2-4.

"This year's edition includes three days of live performances, and I love five of the bands and singers on the list," she told Beijing Review. "So I bought a full-event pass to attend all three days. Since it was held in the suburbs, hotels were not too expensive. I think it was a great deal."

This year's Strawberry Music Festival featured four stages operating simultaneously, creating a diverse musical experience with performances spanning the rock, folk, electronic and rap genres.

"I think attending music festivals is one of the best ways to unwind—especially after months of hard work," Zhou shared. "When I'm sitting on the grass with a drink in hand or dancing with the crowd, I can feel the world slow down around me. After the festival, I can also meet up with my college friends who work in Beijing."

National wave

On May 2, the festival's opening day, hotels near the Shiyuan Park venue—home to this year's Strawberry Music Festival, reported 100-percent occupancy. Serving as a powerful economic catalyst, the event was projected to generate 60 million yuan ($8.3 million) in direct and peripheral spending.

This live music-driven consumption boom was not just limited to Beijing or one festival; it was a holiday tidal wave that swept through the nation. According to the 2025 May Day Performance Tourism Report released by online services platform Meituan, China hosted over 100 large-scale commercial events during the holiday, drawing 2 million spectators. The surge is estimated to drive more than 2 billion yuan ($276 million) in hospitality and tourism revenue, with platform orders for concert-and-festival bundled attraction tickets nearly doubling year on year.

While major cities like Beijing and long-running festivals such as the Strawberry Music Festival continue to dominate China's live music market, a tide of new festivals is rising in second- and third-tier cities, leveraging local culture and niche appeal to attract visitors.

In Chuzhou, Anhui Province, the Flow Gourd Music Festival tapped into the legacy of Ouyang Xiu, a renowned statesman and poet of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), blending traditional markets and intangible cultural heritage exhibits into the soundtracks that attracted droves of fans from May 2 to 4.

Yining in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region's Ili Kazak Autonomous Prefecture saw hotel bookings soar 130 percent year on year during its Peach Music Carnival from May 3 to 4. Pingtan in Fujian Province and Yangshuo in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region reported spikes of over 30 percent in hotel reservations. Meanwhile, the Summer Lawn Concert in Haikou of Hainan Province wowed audiences with a 360-degree circular light-screen theater and dynamic stage design, contributing to a 3.4-fold surge in May Day holiday hotel bookings compared with the same period in 2024.

For travelers seeking affordability and chill vibes, these rising festival hubs are becoming irresistible alternatives to more traditional holiday choices.

"A growing number of cities are hosting music festivals to attract tourists," Chen Shaofeng, head of the Academic Committee of Cultural Industry Research Institute at Peking University, told China News Service.

"The appeal of hosting such events also lies in flexibility. Music festivals can be hosted anywhere, anytime, provided there's star power to draw fans. While traditional holiday events like temple fairs, intangible cultural heritage exhibitions or dragon boat races are rich in local flavor, their appeal often remains local, without celebrity influence to spark cross-regional buzz," Chen added.

"Hosting music festivals in smaller cities perfectly aligns with young people's desire to escape from the fast pace and daily grind of big cities," Luo Xueming, chief expert at the Guangdong Modern Urban Industrial Technology Research Institute, told China News Service. "For these cities, organizing music festivals isn't just an effective way to overcome limitations in cultural tourism resources—it's also a low-cost, high-impact strategy to redefine a city's brand and boost comprehensive consumer spending."

Beyond the beats

Beyond the music itself, fans immersed themselves in a wide array of peripheral activities during their holiday activities. While ticket sales and hotel bookings form the backbone of festival economics, these colorful add-ons have emerged as a critical driver of secondary spending, creating a multiplier effect that boosts everything from small vendors to regionaltourism.

The site of the Strawberry Music Festival in Beijing buzzed with food stalls offering anything from local street snacks to fast-food staples like burgers, pizza and bubble tea. The music-themed bazaar emerged as a major highlight—attendees browsed art exhibitions, flipped through vintage vinyl records and even joined intimate sit-down sessions with artists sharing stories about their musical inspirations and favorite albums. Over at the signing area, long queues formed as fans eagerly snapped up band merchandise and limited-edition records.

At the 13th Midou Music Festival in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, attendees were greeted by a dazzling array of consumption opportunities the moment they entered the venue. Beyond food and beverage options, organizers offered official merchandise sales, on-site makeup services, professional photography sessions and even Thai massages, catering to every young festival-goer's leisure demands.

"At music festivals, it's so easy to get caught up in the hype and spend nonstop," Zhou said, showcasing her newly purchased albums. "Between sets, I love browsing the market stalls while waiting for my favorite bands to perform."

Moreover, as an increasing number of fans choose to extend their stay in host cities, music festivals are driving comprehensive consumption across the accommodation, dining, transportation and retail sectors, transforming one-time entertainment spending into integrated cultural tourism expenditure. To capitalize on this trend, local governments rolled out targeted incentives to retain visitors during the recent holiday.

In Haikou, the city's hotel association coordinated 53 premium hotels to offer festival-exclusive benefits including complimentary shuttle services between venues and hotels, group room discounts and late check-out options.

Meanwhile, the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Culture, Broadcast-TV and Tourism allowed music fans to use their concert tickets to get discounted or free access to major local attractions like the Wuhou Shrine, Jinsha Site Museum and Chengdu Research Base for Giant Panda Breeding.

"The key to avoiding 'one-off consumption' lies in building a sustainable cultural tourism ecosystem," Luo said. "If music festivals prioritize short-term crowds over service quality and content innovation, they'll inevitably lose audience interest in the long run. Instead, festival organizers should deepen ties with local industries. For example, by launching joint tickets for performances and attractions or discount packages with malls, they can convert fleeting visitors into repeat guests. Meanwhile, local governments must establish long-term oversight mechanisms to promote cultural tourism development in a holistic way.

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon

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