Headlined by Taiwan singer Elva Hsiao, Hong Kong singer-songwriter Khalil Fong, the annual Zebra Music Festival is coming to Shanghai under the theme of sunshine, beach and ocean.

Consisting of three stages - heaven, earth and ocean - the festival will also see a bunch of foreign acts, including Singaporean singer-songwriter Yida, Swedish band Deer Tracks, Spacepimps from the United States and Bottomline from United Kingdom as well as disc jockeys setting out to make electron parties.

Founded four years ago in Chengdu, Sichuan province by Li Dai, former general manager of Channel V, Zebra Music Festival is an outdoor music festival with pop stars performing side by side with rock 'n' roll musicians.

Held a year after the devastating earthquake of Sichuan province, the music festival was also dedicated to the victims of the disaster and Li wanted to use music to encourage people.

Now, as Zebra Music Festival grew bigger and bigger, it covers various genres of music, from pop singers to indie rockers and has expanded into other cities in China besides Chengdu.

The three-day carnival-like music festival has also been focusing on discovering young Chinese musicians, who will show their talents in the Campus Starting Line section, a campus band competition.

Besides music, a social event for those who are single has been created on the sideline of the music festival to help those who are looking for love. There are other activities such as beach soccer, salsa party and other beach sports as well as games to keep attendees busy.

Still, charity remains the main agenda of Zebra Music Festival. This year's music festival will have a public welfare event, which is aimed at encouraging young people to protect the environment and engage in charity work.

In early April this year, the Zebra Music Festival was supposed to be held in both Chengdu and Shanghai, however, because of the Ya'an earthquake, the music festival has been postponed.

In October, the music festival will return to Chengdu and focus on bands and music stars that originated from Chengdu.

The journey from downtown to the festival venue takes only 30 minutes with the new railway line from Shanghai South to Jinshanwei.

chennan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/07/2013 page15)