Army, navy bands to perform at music fest

ABOUT 180 Chinese and overseas bands will perform at the weeklong wind music festival later this month.

The performances, most of them free, will be presented at local theaters, campuses, tourist sites, communities, suburbs and at Huangpu River waterfront from April 28 till May 4.

The foreign bands this year are from Japan, Lithuania, Poland and Thailand.

The People’s Liberation Army band, which performs for foreign leaders and at national events, will give performances at the concert hall of Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and at local universities.

The Chinese Armed Police Force band, which is in charge of the daily flag-raising ceremony at the Tian’anmen Square in Beijing, and the PLA Navy band will perform in local schools.

The festival, which has been held annually since 2008, promotes wind music among residents and students and attempts to boost the city’s artistic culture, said Yang Yinyu, director with the Yangpu District Culture Bureau, one of the organizers of the event.

One of the highlight of this year will a 1,000-strong wind music band which will perform the Chinese national anthem during the opening ceremony of the festival at Zhengda Gymnasium at Fudan University on April 29.