Maxi midi

China’s largest music festival is back with a stellar line up of local and international artists writes Ian Sherman

This year, the Midi School is facing some unusual challenges in organsing the fest; promoters now live in a post-Bjork world, and putting together any kind of large scale gig has become even more fraught than it was before. There is also, we're told, some kind of sporting get-together in the summer that has lent every other unconnected event an almost unbearable significance; the world is watching, everything had better be spectacular.

       To their credit (and probably the frustration of every laowai eagerly expecting hordes of big name bands to visit Beijing this year), the Midi School seem to have completely ignored Olympic expectations, instead sticking to their tried and tested formula of concentrating on the Chinese scene and, almost as an afterthought, sprinkling the bill with largely unknown, but mostly up and coming, foreign acts - most of whom are here with financial support from their embassies, but not the festival itself. Unfortunately, at the time of going to press, the daily lineup of the festival had not to be fully finalised, but judging by the information available it should be another knock out three days of sun, rock and warm beer.

Picks of the festival

The Swamp: This Guangzhou space-rock crew released Time Out's favourite album of last year, in spite of some stiff Beijing competition. Epic, ridiculously ambitious sonic voyages that last a lifetime yet seem to be over in the blink of an eye.

Proximity Butterfly: Great name, great hair, great band. This multi-national Chengdu based outfit has been rocking its reverb-laden Siamese-Dream-on-the-moon tunes for a couple of years now to ever-increasing attention, tearing up stages all over China in the process.

Mando Diao: After last year's pretty nifty performances at Midi and Mao, the excellent Swedish garage-funkateers return.

Hopper: France is not necessarily a country one would associate with pure, gorgeous, noisy indie rock, but Parisiennes Hopper would probably beg to differ. Apart from the occasional Blonde Redhead moment, they sound like nothing but themselves. There is no higher recommendation.

Jane Germain: Sino-Australian playing roots rock it's ok to like. Jazz, bluegrass and blues all covered in a late 1970s sheen. Imagine a coked-up Carole King fronting Steely Dan and spending a lot of time at Studio 54.

The Verse: Beijing's own funk-soul-hip-hop juggernaut. Tired of all the screaming guitars and angry young men? This is the band for you. A band designed to play outdoor fests, at the very least because no other stage will accommodate its several hundred members.

SMZB: Wuhan outfit recently released a fine album of suitably angry and clamorous punk rock and manage to be one of the few bands in the known universe to utilise bagpipes in rock music and not irritate.

Vicky Pollard: Female fronted Icelandic crew specialising in supremely messed up, and weirdly motivated, stoner rock. Like a pre-crap Sugarcubes covering Hawkwind. It's unlikely that the eponymous delinquent would ever listen to anything this inspired.

Jyrojets: Promising Scottish whippersnappers with their eyes firmly on the widescreen, plod-rock pedestal currently occupied by the likes of Muse and Doves. Sure, its dad-rock, but it's dad-rock done well.

Hellvar: Eerie Icelandic electro-rock for the non-bodypopping set.