[:en]
Photos by DALI, 李乐为, 胡小杰 , Yan Cong, 秀才, 杨煖, Miya Shen, 杨枪枪 , HYC, Louis, Voque Ting Co. Ltd. and Archie Hamilton.
We made it to three.
After a decade of trying, we made it to three. And it felt great.
In contrast to last year, everything in 2017 conspired the right way. Two days of balmy sunshine, little fluffy clouds and green AQI markers paved the way for 66 artists to sparkle across 5 stages.
The vibe across the two days was next level. We felt the energy crackle in 2016, but 2017 took things up a notch. Huge crowds for RADWIMPS, DIIV, and the virtual homecoming for Carsick Cars, playing their first album in full and for the first time in six years with the original lineup, felt like a validation for sticking to our guns, and supporting music that we think is important. Despite being sandwiched between Ultra on one side and Storm on the other, Concrete & Grass 2017 showed that there is a growing (and hugely passionate) audience for a festival that just cares about the music and puts the people first.
We had hip-hop, dream pop, j-rock, post-punk, ska-punk, gypsy freak punk, hardcore, metalcore, black metal, shoegaze and whatever label fits the glorious sounds that ho99o9 and Kero Kero Bonito were making.
And the beautiful thing was, every single artist brought the heat. Whether it was Mumdance bursting the seams of the Yurt after Container handed him a red-hot baton, or Gacharic Spin’s color co-ordinated freak out after Soil & “Pimp” blew the minds of the early risers. Pro tip: Get to this festival early people, or you will 100% guaranteed miss out.
Our Jimboomba corner took on new life in 2017. Our friends from JamMart set up around our little folk stage and beauty was all around – artisanal handicrafts, diabolo, stilt walkers, music and performances – plus the 3rd round of our We Are Cubs kids area. Managed by the indefatigable crew from Musiclab, there were music workshops, sports carnivals and performances for all your little ones. And of course the third year of our Ultimate Frisbee action, lovingly curated by Ningbo’s Yikun Sports again. We had the return of the Sunshine Home, for their annual drum circle, plus the harmonious mouth organs of the Jing-An Harmonica quartet (the festival’s secret headliners). Watch this space – Jimboomba has taken its place as a serious player this year, and we plan to build it bigger and weirder in 2018.
Stage Left and Thunderdome played host to some of the heaviest music the ‘Grass has ever seen on the Saturday, with local heroes Chaos Mind throwing it down for Shanghai hardcore, and Zuriaake back for a second year after the rain in 2016 cut them short. If 2017 is any indication, it looks like bringing back artists in subsequent years will become an unfortunate habit.
Sunday brought the ultimate lineup for fans of what we call “Fanmucore”. Motorama > David Boring > Ringo Deathstarr > cero > Toy >downy > DIIV. What can we say – there were a LOT of people for that little run, and they were richly rewarded. The other attractions in Thunderdome this year came from our friends at Stary, who brought the electric skateboard madness for a second time, and Jagermeister who helped lubricate the Left crazies.
Our beloved Field of Dreams was bumping from Saturday early to Sunday late. The Wooozy Dimension saw Tkay slay, Howie warp, Kero smile, and ho99o9 explode while the Yurt was Feel Good Inc from the moment Dalong started to the moment Steven Julien finished. A big thanks to the awesome NTS for both curating such a fantastic Sunday, and for broadcasting it to the world.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a festival without the odd wrinkle. Our team worked all hours of the day and night (even sleeping in the office on occasion) to make sure that every single artist was in China the right way. But the reality is that a festival with over 50% international artists is almost an impossibility in this day and age. But we have tried and we will continue to try to push boundaries and bring you the best festival that we possibly can. We are incredibly sorry to all the fans of the artists that were unable to play. We are working to find ways for them to join us in 2018. We hope you will too.
It just leaves us to say a massive thanks to all of our wonderful partners. To our friend Clarence (a real ‘Rock’n’roll Hero’) for all the help. To He Jun the dealmaker. To Boxing Cat and Lee, who put their money (and delicious beer) where their mouths were (and to Kaiba and Goose Island for upping the ante), to Eddy Yang and team for keeping the bars all running smoothly, to Brad and all the Realest of Live crews who made this year sound and look better than ever before, to Star for their new and massive Orbit Echo Stage, to our wonderful venue for their unending patience and wonderful grass, to our stage managers, to Leon Wu and crew for all the heavy lifting 10 years running, and to our band handlers and our amazing volunteers from Hands on Shanghai. To the local army and police and security dudes who helped it all happen smoothly (and with a smile), to Kick the Gong Around, Eddie and the Carlos / Sasha axis who made it all so pretty, to Sophia and our IMAG team and to Le Music for sticking around to broadcast it all again, to Cao Lei for the internet, to the photographers and videographers that make sure that 2017 will live forever, to all of our wonderful food vendors –you guys make our festival what it is – to Shalanaya who built that awesome dome and worked it all weekend, to Akenz for upping our street cred, to Katy and Gao Jiafeng and the Shaving in the Dark posse for keeping the ‘Grass weird. To Damai for the last 3 years. To our Split Works team – you guys amaze us every year with your passion for this project and for the music.
And finally, to our fans. Our Concrete Kids. You are this festival, this festival is you.
To everyone who came, in the words of Thurston Moore, DIIV and Warrior King:
“Peace and love.”
xoxo,
Concrete & Grass
[:zh]
Photos by DALI, 李乐为, 胡小杰 , Yan Cong, 秀才, 杨煖, Miya Shen, 杨枪枪 , HYC, Louis, Voque Ting Co. Ltd. and Archie Hamilton.
第三年，在十年不断努力后，我们终于让音乐节来到了第三年。这感觉妙不可言。
相较于去年，2017混凝草算得上“顺风顺水”；明媚的阳光、镶着金边的云彩、温润的微风和带着青草味的洁净空气……所有这些条件都为两天超过60组的艺人闪耀五个舞台铺平了道路。
炙热——不是温度，而是场内的氛围——是我们对这个周末最直观的感受！我们在2016已经能感受到场地内四处涌动的能量，而2017的两天则把这一切都推上了新高度。无论是压轴的RADWIMPS，DIIV抑或是在兵马司十周年之际，以原始阵容首次表演整张处女专辑的Carsick Cars都吸引了巨大的人群。这不禁让我们更加确信自己的初衷与坚持；我们珍视的音乐值得我们不懈的支持。尽管在市场上受到同质化电音音乐节的夹击，2017的混凝草仍证明了，一个以人为本、以音乐为核心的音乐节始终会拥有市场以及不断增长的热情观众群体。
嘻哈、梦幻流行乐、日本摇滚、后朋、斯卡、吉普赛朋克、硬核、金属核、黑金属、自赏以及Ho99o9和Kero Kero Bonito这样无法用单独标签定义的前卫/可爱之声；2017混凝草阵容在深度与广度上再次得以拓展。而其中最为美妙之处则在于，艺人们各自的精彩表演在用心安排下得到了相互辉映的效果。当“大佬”Mumdance接过Container的接力棒，“无缝连接”引爆Yurt；当Gacharic Spin以色彩统一的制服、完美配合的舞步和疯狂的琴艺震惊那些已经被Soil & “Pimp” Sessions征服的早早入场的观众；音乐节区别于一般演出的乐趣在这些时刻便不言而喻。另外，说起打头阵的Soil & “Pimp” Sessions，我们有一条专业的建议：来看混凝草一定要早早到，不然你百分之百会错过精彩！
2017的Jimboomba舞台焕然新生。这个民谣草坪舞台以及周边的休闲区域在经过我们来自角市的好友们的精心装饰后别有一番趣味，——纯手制工艺品，抖空竹，踩高跷杂耍，音乐与表演；再加上不远处已经连续三年收获大朋友小朋友赞誉的“熊孩子乐园”——草地上处处都洋溢着欢乐的气氛。今年的“熊孩子乐园”被MusicLab的辛勤员工们打理得井井有条：音乐工坊，运动嘉年华和各色表演无不让小朋友乐翻了天。当然，喜欢户外活动的朋友们也过足了瘾！我们的老朋友宁波翼鲲体育连续第三年将极限飞盘带到了现场，让无论是新手抑或是专业玩家都在混凝草找到了属于自己的运动乐趣。此外，阳光之家的再度光临与他们惹眼的腰鼓表演，以及我们的秘密压轴艺人——来自静安的山鹰西洋口琴乐团和他们暖暖沁人心的四重奏；这个小小的角落今年见证了太多太多的精彩与惊喜，俨然成为音乐节中的一处桃花源。因此，我们计划在2018年将它做得更大、更新奇。
左舞台在周六晚上迎来了一些混凝草迄今为止最重型的音乐；本土英雄Chaos Mind带来的凶狠演出充分为上海硬核正名，而国内金属翘楚Zuriaake则以万众期待的回归弥补了2016暴雨带来的遗憾；如果2017的阵容表露出了任何征兆，那就是：在第二年请回上一年的艺人似乎将成为某种不幸的规律……
周日左舞台的演出可谓独立摇滚粉丝的终极盛宴，——Motorama > David Boring > Ringo Deathstarr > cero > TOY > downy > DIIV—— 这样的阵容与编排让独立拥趸们得以大饱眼福，纷纷选择直接在左舞台“安营扎寨”。在将心爱乐队一网打尽的间隙，粉丝们也并没闲着；一些酷爱新鲜事物的弄潮儿（继去年又一次）体验了Stary电动滑板的疯狂；而那些热爱“宁静与平和”的家伙们则选择瘫倒在野格王座上，畅饮几杯冰镇野格利口酒以“舒缓”左舞台的狂躁。
目光转向投射我们梦想的“梦幻之地”，这里的躁动从周六中午到周日晚间也都不曾停息。无解空间见证了Tkay Maidza的大杀四方，Howie Lee的乖张鬼马，Kero Kero Bonito的无邪笑容以及Ho99o9的出离愤怒；与此同时，Yurt舞台则是自Dalong开始至Steven Julien结束，都散发出一派令人沉迷的“Feel Good Inc”式的气息。在此由衷感谢出色的NTS团队，是他们为我们策划了一个绝妙的周日并将它用Podcast直播给了全世界观众。
我们很庆幸一切呈现结果都如此美好，但一场音乐节没有一点点波折似乎也算不上完整。受制于诸多现实境况，参演阵容50%以上为国际艺人的混凝草有时就像一个不可能完成的任务。为了不辜负大家的厚爱，我们用尽了浑身解数；我们的艺人统筹团队起早贪黑，甚至时不时要在办公室过夜，只为确保每一个参演人员都能以正确、合规的方式踏上混凝草这一方地。我们在过往从未停止过尝试，而未来也将不辍推动边界，为你们带来我们能做到的最好的音乐节。在此，我们要再次向未能出演乐队的乐迷们真诚地说一声抱歉；我们正在努力想办法让这些艺人在2018年回归，希望届时你们也能再次加入我们。
此时此刻，我们有太多的谢意想要对无与伦比的合作伙伴们表达。致Clarence，你是真正的Rock’n’Roll Hero；致何军，谢谢你促成了这幢美事；致吴欢和你的团队，感谢你们10年来所有的辛勤付出；致拳击猫还有Lee，感谢你们的言出必行（与美酒佳酿）；致杨大庆及团队，今年的酒吧运营还是一如既往得出色；致李湛和最Real的Real Live团队，是你们让今年的舞台声光效果比以往都更加出色；致Star，谢谢你们今年贡献的全新“Orbit”回声舞台；致我们美妙的场地团队，谢谢你们不尽的耐心和出色的草坪；致我们所有的舞台经理、后台经理、乐队接待工作人员以及无与伦比的Hands on Shanghai志愿者们，谢谢你们的无私付出；致Kick the Gong Around，Eddie和Carlos/Sasha二人组，是你们让一切都看上去那样别致、美丽；致张弦和视频录制团队、乐视音乐团队，谢谢你们今年继续来转播音乐节；致曹磊，你提供的网络是所有人工作的基础；致所有摄影师、摄像师们，2017混凝草的记忆因你们而得以永久封存；致我们最棒的食品摊主们，你们给了音乐节个性与特点；致Shalanaya，感谢你们的穹顶装置和一个周末的辛勤工作；致Akenz，是你们让我们收获更多青年街头文化的认同；致Katy和高嘉丰以及Shaving in the Dark团体，你们让混凝草保持了应有的猎奇态度；致大麦，感谢你们这三年来的一切；致我们Split Works开功团队，你们对音乐节项目和音乐的巨大热忱每年都让我们深深惊叹。
最后的最后，致我们的乐迷们，我们的Concrete Kids，你们就是这场音乐节的全部，这场音乐节等同于你们。
To everyone who came, in the words of Thurston Moore, DIIV and Warrior King:
“Peace and love.”
xoxo,
Concrete & Grass
[:]