Asian Fests Heat Up

Split Works will once again present the Jue Festival in both Shanghai and Beijing from March 12 to April 3.

Jue is a “community-driven, urban festival celebrating China’s creative scene, including music, performance and art.”

So far, the organizer has announced 70 acts, including The Whitest Boy Alive, The Besnard Lakes, Vitalic, The Black Atlantic, Black Hole Carnival and World’s End Girlfriend.

Archie Hamilton of Split Works told CNNGo, “Apart from some really great music, I am pretty excited about all the various battles – literary battles, poetry slams, live design war. It’s going to get a bit funky.”

In other festival news, Creativeman Productions released Feb. 28 the first list of acts for Summer Sonic 2011, which will take place simultaneously in Tokyo and Osaka Aug. 13-14.

In addition to headliners Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Strokes, who were already announced in January, the festival will feature Primal Scream (Osaka only), Public Image Ltd. (Tokyo only), Suede, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, The Mars Volta, James Blunt, Panic At the Disco, Mutemath, Simple Plan, House of Pain, Arrested Development (Tokyo only), Deerhunter and more.

Exactly 12 hours later, Smash announced the initial lineup for the Fuji Rock Festival, which will take place the weekend of July 29 at the Naeba Ski Resort in Niigata Prefecture, Japan.

Though headliners were not designated, the likely trio will be Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay and The Chemical Brothers.

In addition, the mountain festival will present Atari Teenage Riot, The Avett Brothers, Buddy Guy, Cake, Congotronics, Cornershop, CSS, Deerhoof, Four Tet, G. Love, Mogwai, Sisters of Mercy, Todd Rundgren, Wilco and Yellow Magic Orchestra.
Many more acts will be announced in the coming months.