Thus Spoke the Festival Master
This month's JUE Festival has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 2009 and this year's festival looks to be the biggest yet. JUE Festival Founder Archie Hamilton recaps the difficulties of getting the festival to where it is today and what lies ahead.
What was your inspriation for the JUE Festival?
A lot of the idea came from growing up in Edinburgh. It was seeing [the Edinburgh International Festival], something that massive and crazy and diverse on my doorstep for a number of years.
What has the process of building the festival been like over the years?
We've had flack from the beginning. People accused us of piggy-backing on stuff that was already there. And for the first couple of years, that was kind of the case, but we always viewed it less cynically. The goal has always been to pull together the creative communities in Shanghai and Beijing and create something that is more than the sum of its parts.
What was the first Jue Festival like?
It was January 2009. Miserable, miserable January 2009. I had this amazing experience of walking from my house down to the Dream Factory [a now defunct venue on Yuyao Lu] to see Demerit and it was raining with galeforce winds. There were no taxis because everyone had gone home for the Chinese New Year. I thought, January's perfect for a festival, nothing else happens in January. There's a reason for that...
What do you think of this year's lineup?
Well, on the art side, things are great. There's a lot of really neat stuff, but on the music side things have shifted a bit towards – how should I say – the mainstream Chinese palate. It's the same with what we did with the Black Rabbit Festival. I've realized that I get more pleasure out of a full room of excited Chinese kids than I do sitting back in the back of an empty room with my expat mates thinking, 'Yeah, this is cool.'
What do you think about the idea that Chinese audiences need to be 'educated'?
Well, it's that whole thing where you start from a very culturally imperialistic standpoint where what you consider to be the epitome of what is exciting and edgy ends up being totally off base. It's patronising to say that the Chinese need to be taught about anything. In my mind, it develops more when we realize we all have stuff to teach each other.
What are you excited about art-wise?
JUE Next Gen is an exciting new development. It's a photography contest that we started last year that has developed into something more organised this year. We get ad space in targeted Chinese media and we look for the best photo and offer a cash prize. We're working with the fashion brand Ospop to promote the contest as well.
What's your ultimate goal for the festival?
It's starting now with people beginning to create stuff specifically for JUE. The idea is that if everyone comes together and everyone does something cool during these few weeks, then Shanghai and Beijing will become destination cities at that time both for the rest of China and internationally.
Web: www.juefestival.com
