This Chinese National Day holiday, Shanghai is getting a new electronic music festival, one with a particularly impressive pedigree when it comes to its organizers, venue, and lineup. Put together by Kaifeng-via-Vancouver DJ and producer Yu Su, Shanghai/Xiamen-based DJ and producer Knopha, and multidisciplinary artist Youpo, OUHE will take over Shanghai’s historic Great World (大世界, Dàshìjiè) entertainment complex on October 2 and 3.
The festival will feature of a mix of respected tastemaker DJs from the West (including Ben UFO and Optimo), Asian artists making a name for themselves on the international stage (such as Mayurashka, Mr. Ho, and Yu Su and Knopha themselves), and fresh faces from the scene in Shanghai and elsewhere in China (chuan, Lv Zhiliang, and more).
The Great World, in the center of the city, meanwhile, provides a setting quite different from that of most Chinese electronic music festivals, which in recent years have often been held in secluded resorts. First opened in 1917, the Great World was a multipurpose arcade and entertainment complex where, prior to Liberation, glamor came mixed with a side of sleaze. Later, it was transformed into a children’s indoor amusement park, cementing its place in the memories of Shanghainese kids who grew up in the 1980s and 90s — including festival co-organizer Youpo, and, hopefully, other local music fans excited to dance at their childhood stomping ground.
Plus, as Knopha says with a chuckle, “I like the fact that it used to be called ‘People’s Playground.’”
By hosting the festival downtown, and wrapping up before midnight each day, OUHE aims to offer a different experience from an (extremely) late night at a techno club: something more relaxed and accessible even to slightly older dance music fans with responsibilities to worry about the next morning.
While the music on offer promises to run the gamut from house and techno to ambient, dubstep, and new wave, the lineup is unified by the organizers’ focus on Asian talent, whether at home or in the diaspora. For example, Hong Kong’s Mr. Ho, a house music specialist who managed to tour the mainland during the Covid pandemic, will DJ back-to-back with Tokyo veteran Mayurashka, whose “really good sense of atmosphere” Knopha enthuses about. Sam Goku may hail from Germany, but he has Chinese roots, and his airy techno has resonated deeply with local listeners.
Even the festival’s major international artists have pre-existing relationships with the Chinese music community. As Knopha points out, through past visits to the country London’s Ben UFO has influenced many Chinese DJs to adopt a bass-heavy, UK-inspired sound. And Glasgow duo Optimo — who are just as likely to drop echo-drenched dub or scratchy post punk into their sets as pounding techno — were a key touchstone for Yu Su early in her DJ career.
An opening party focused on live performances, happening at lounge-ish Shanghai club Wigwam on October 1, perhaps best illustrates the spirit of community and exchange that OUHE seeks to foster. The event features two projects that Knopha describes as “equally important when it comes to when it comes to the leftfield, ambient, world music genre”: American-Indonesian cross-cultural collaboration Asa Tone and Korean duo Salamanda. They’ll also be joined by rising Guangzhou producer Cola Ren, who shares their fondness for cyclical percussion patterns and sparkling melodies that recall traditional Asian scales.
With the bill completed by young Chengdu DJs Sonicare and SeventyMaos (who Knopha praises for their wide-ranging musical knowledge), it promises to be a night showcasing the breadth and quality of electronic music in Asia.
As Knopha explains, “we want the audience to be proud of our own artists” — a fitting sentiment for a festival bringing electronic music to a storied venue in the heart of Shanghai.
Follow RADII and OUHE on Instagram for a chance to win tickets, or purchase tickets on OUHE’s WeChat page.
Banner image by Haedi Yue.
