Blame it on Bjork

It feels like the May holiday was ages ago, despite the fact it was only last week, but for those music fans, the cancellation (or postponement) of the Midi music festival won't be forgotten anytime soon. The festival fell prey to "security concerns", but one has to wonder how much Bjork's famous statement during her Shanghai concert about a certain autonomous region in western China played a role in the government's decision. Bjork's brief moment of lunacy came before the madness that happened in March (and I'm not talking about college basketball!) and, especially in light of that, I can imagine the government's fears about what the many foreign acts coming to play at Midi might say.

One would think that many foreign music acts would want to come to Beijing this summer, especially before/during/after the Olympics, but it now looks like the government's fear about "disorder" and "security" may prevent this from happening. Right now, it doesn't seem like the government is going to relax anytime soon, in fact, things might get even more tense as we get closer to August 8th.