CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- A new kind of concert is becoming popular among Chongqing’s young people: there is no exquisite music hall or stage for such concerts, and audiences do not need to buy tickets for them, because they are held on the roadside.

In recent months, road concerts have become increasingly popular. Different from traditional concerts, road concerts are loose and unstructured, without determined venues and singers. All people can become singers in a road concert, and all streets and lanes can become a stage for them.

Road concerts are started by Wang Yuanhao, Qing, Liu Junfeng, Wang Bo, and Fan Yongliang at the end of 2023. Their average age is 35 years old. The team includes music training teachers who have been working for more than ten years, as well as cultural and creative shopkeepers and restaurant owners.

Qing said that they used to sign on streets to release the pressure of life, and the road concert was held to offer a stage for the audience. In the concert, they provide the accompanying music for the audience instead of singing to them.

The five young people hosted the first road concert in an underpass at the end of November 2023. Their singing attracted dozens of audiences, and eventually, four or five audiences came on the stage to sing with them. Qing laughed and said, "The audiences were a little braver than we thought.”

This relaxing and novel concert attracted more and more young people. The road concert has become mature, and we will inform the relevant departments in advance before the start of each concert, said Qing. In the past three months, they have hosted 38 road concerts, with an average of 100 to 200 audiences. Some audiences even become regular singers in the concert.

Haisen, a 25-year-old boy, one of the earlier audience of road concerts, is one of the regular singers. He was lost and confused about his future when he graduated from college. Touched by the freedom and vitality of road concerts, he joined the concert and made a group of new friends here, getting rid of fear about the unknown future.

7-year-old Mu Mu is the youngest regular audience. Since she first went to a road concert with her parents on New Year's Eve, she has been obsessed with it. Whenever she attends a road concert, she is active in singing on the stage. Today she is a little ‘superstar’ and often receives flowers from audiences in road concerts.

The two-hour road concert is hosted free of charge every Friday and Saturday night. Sometimes the creators of the concert offer some subsidies to encourage the audience. They are also keen on public welfare. Last year, they held a fund-raising concert for the Gansu earthquake, raising more than 10,000 yuan.

With the increasing popularity of road concerts, Qing started to sing his original songs at the concerts and integrate their songs with Chongqing characteristics, so that more and more people would be attracted by Chongqing.

Now the creators of road concerts set a new target for themselves. They want to create a music neighborhood with Chongqing characteristics and make music another new card of Chongqing.
(Translated by Yuki, Fathom Language Limited)