On the bank of the golden beach in the West Coast New District of Qingdao, a building with a beautiful Phoenix shape - Phoenix Voice Grand Theater stands in the heart of Phoenix Island. Over the past four years, countless beautiful moments related to art have taken place at the Grand Theater. The good news coming from the Grand Theater has also inspired the simultaneous development of Qingdao global culture and art.
In July 2018, as Lang Lang played the first note here, an endless stream of audiences and tourists came here to experience the splendor and diversity of Shandong's new cultural landmark; in 2019, the "Phoenix Music Festival" was created for the first time The music festival model has become "China's first self-owned brand pop music festival", setting domestic records of "the first artist lineup, the first national box office, and the first social influence". Phoenix, Strawberry, Wheatfield, and Midi have become the top four domestically produced music festivals. The big music festival has attracted great attention from the industry; resist the pressure in 2020 and create a new field of cultural industry under the background of cultural consumption in the new era, adding value to the industry and empowering the city... After four years of polishing, from landmark building to cultural leader From a new force in Qingdao's cultural construction to a national performance benchmark, the Phoenix Sound Theater has never stopped moving forward.
The clock is turned back 4 years ago. Longhai Group, a local enterprise in the West Coast New Area , invested 800 million yuan to build the Phoenix Voice Grand Theater with unique shape and first-class facilities to support the construction of "Music Island". According to incomplete statistics, the total number of domestic theaters at that time had exceeded 2,000. Compared with the luxurious "hardware", many theaters were strapped for content "software", and there were even "empty nest" theaters. The recovery of investment in the cultural field is a long process. "Building a nest" is not difficult. How to make this "phoenix" from a private enterprise sing loudly and truly become a high-quality literary and art palace and a "golden nest" of the cultural industry is the beginning of the grand theater. The biggest test we face.
In the summer of 2018, the Grand Theater operation team first conducted a comprehensive analysis in the shortest time. The provincial and municipal levels continued to optimize the layout of the cultural tourism industry, strengthened top-level design and policy guidance, and used the integration of culture and tourism as the starting point to cultivate and strengthen key cultural industries. Tourism industry project; Qingdao West Coast New Area on the west side of Jiaozhou Bay , as the 9th national-level new area, is gradually becoming Qingdao’s new economic development center. However, compared with the rapidly growing new area economy at that time, Qingdao’s cultural industry’s traditional layout is still in the west Mainly in the old city; on the west coast The people have been accumulating demand for cultural consumption for a long time, but they have not formed cultural consumption habits. There is a performance infrastructure that basically meets the needs of citizens, but there is no precedent for a mature industry. In the year when the
Grand Theater was established, it launched three major themed activities: "Phoenix Voice International Music Festival", "Phoenix Voice Electronic Music Festival", and "Phoenix Pearl Global City International Circus". In only 38 days, nearly 100 performances were performed , internationally renowned artists and art groups have been invited to perform at the Phoenix Sound Theater: Lang Lang Piano Concert, Qin Liwei Cello Concert, Xiaojuan and the Residents of the Valley, MARIANABO, VINAI, Buyi Band, Happy Mahua and other high-end performances The event was brilliant, with a total of 110,000 visitors received, and it also established the country's first indoor electronic music festival brand.
The growth of new things must go through many unforeseen difficulties. In the first "Qingdao Phoenix Music Festival" in 2019, the luxurious cast of more than 150 people attracted tens of thousands of viewers who bought tickets early. However, the day before the opening was hit by Category 10 winds and heavy rain, which raised questions about whether the performance could start as planned. Finally, with the support of the West Coast New District, the Grand Theater made all-round adjustments in the shortest possible time, and a music festival that changed the cultural landscape of Shandong kicked off after the storm. Hotel rooms within 5 kilometers of the main venue of the music festival were all booked. The unprecedented audio-visual feast and unique music experience brought by the music festival made it difficult to get a ticket (ticket) and a room (accommodation) in Qingdao for the first time. It is a unique "landscape" that is difficult to find in a car (taxi).
An epidemic in 2020 has had a huge impact on the performance industry. In response to the calls and expectations of audiences and music fans, the West Coast New District has decided to hold the 2020 Qingdao Phoenix Music Festival under the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, and strictly and carefully prepare before and during the festival. and post-holiday epidemic prevention and control management, fully demonstrating Qingdao's urban enthusiasm and responsibility as a "capital of film and television, island of music, city of beer, and coast of conventions and exhibitions".The stages of the music festival are all set outdoors. A strong performance lineup composed of nearly 30 groups of artists, top stage production and directing teams from the International IP Music Festival, and advanced lighting, visual, and audio equipment have driven the enthusiastic carnival in the audience. and shouting, completely igniting the golden autumn October night on the west coast of Qingdao.
Phoenix Music Festival has added a real music IP to Qingdao. This IP can be output, expanded, and can build a cultural and creative industry chain; a single fan spends about 3,000 yuan at the music festival, and at least 30,000 yuan is spent every year. The cultural and tourism consumption generated by fans was close to 100 million yuan, and the music festival phenomenon attracted national attention. At that time, the media commented that the Phoenix Music Festival had largely rewritten the model of domestic urban music festivals.
Due to the uncertainty of the epidemic, the 2021 Phoenix Music Festival "had to miss its appointment", and it is unknown when the theater will be able to "open" on a regular basis. However, the Phoenix Voice has not "suspended", but unremitting exploration can open up the industry Breakthrough operating mode.
Audience recognition gives the Grand Theater the confidence to persevere. In the past four years, the theater's charity performances have accounted for more than 1/3 of the total performances every year. The theater is implementing "digital cultural tourism and marketing innovation", "public art and cultural creativity", "corrupt cultural construction" and "public service satisfaction" Continuous exploration in four aspects has contributed to the positive interaction between the social and economic benefits of the Grand Theatre. Although the performances this year need to adopt prevention and control measures such as ticket sales in separate seats, seating in alternate rows, and staggered viewing, and the attendance rate is strictly controlled and it is even difficult to recover operating costs, the Grand Theater still specially planned the "Voice of Phoenix 2022 Performance Season" and Create three major theme sections: "Phoenix Play", "Hear the Time" and "Enjoy the Arts", and introduce Mr. Cao Yu's classic drama "The Wilderness", the large-scale epic dance drama "Du Fu", and the star version of the cross talk drama "Still Beautiful" etc., to further meet the people’s growing needs for a better life.
Only wonderful and pleasant people can have a sustainable cultural ecology. Although the 2021 "Phoenix Music Festival" has missed its promise, the IP images of Phoenix Sound Theater "Feng Zai" and "Feng Yatou" have become the new focus, and once launched, they have become spiritual totems representing the new generation. It is precisely this new theater model of ecological operation and building an urban cultural complex that allows the "Voice of Phoenix" to remain strong and loud in the era of the epidemic. Since the establishment of Qingdao Phoenix Voice Grand Theater Art Education Center in December 2020, the theater has been adopting an open and inclusive attitude, focusing on developing art education such as quality piano lessons, children's dance, improvisational drama, children's chorus, etc., to enhance the audience's artistic appreciation. , and this group of audiences has become the main force of theater consumption; the theater open day activities allow children to enter the theater and step onto the stage, sowing a seed of art in their hearts; for the outdoor part, the South Square of the Grand Theater has carefully created a children's play area District, North Square focuses on trendy sports and extreme sports, using young people to drive regional vitality, and using children and families to drive popularity. Together with the Starry Sky Art Museum, which covers an area of 2,000 square meters and is the largest in Shandong Province, it has given birth to a vibrant art district. This year, the Grand Theater also introduced high-quality coffee, fashionable catering, and pioneered the "music + coffee + camping" model and beach bar model to create an outdoor performing arts economy.
Retaining talents means leaving behind the fire of literature and art. "Although these two years have been difficult, we have not taken the initiative to lay off employees or reduce employee salaries," said Ma Rong, general manager of the Grand Theater. The theater is a highly comprehensive art institution. Senior talents who understand the rules of performance production, understand stage technology, and are proficient in project management are very rare. In the early days of its establishment, the Grand Theater relied on external recruitment and internal recruitment, mentoring and training, etc. We have formed a team of outstanding talents in theater operation and management, which is one of the few in the country. Together with the Grand Theater, they exchanged the perseverance of theater people for the audience's persistence.
(reported by Dazhong Daily client reporter Zhang Zhongde)
