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'Shake the Lake Int'l Music Festival' shakes Beijing

Reporter: Li Qiong 丨 CCTV.com

09-21-2016 03:22 BJT

For more than 20 years, the 'Shake the Lake International Music Festival' has been bringing the best of the boogie-woogie, swing and jazz music to various venues around the world. And over the Mid-Autumn Festival this weekend, it came to Beijing for the first time, shaking up the local audience at the city's suburban Yanqi Lake.

It's the first time Europe's largest boogie-woogie festival has come to Beijing, and it gave Chinese music fans a lot to shake to during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.

Shake the Lake International Music Festival is a traditional concert from Austria. It has a history of more than 20 years, and features pulsating live boogie-woogie, swing and jazz music. It always draws the best musicians in the genre from all over the world.

With a highly acclaimed ensemble of musicians, the night program features the original line-up and orchestration from Austria's unique International Boogie Music Festival.

And the Beijing concert is the product of years of development.

"In the beginning it's a pure boogie-woogie festival. And then we said let's introduce jazz a little bit," said Johnny Schutten, pianist and co-founder of "Shake The Lake".

Even though "Shake the Lake" has been touring around Europe for two decades, the festival and music styles are still very fresh to Chinese people.

Organizers say that this year's event might be just a start, and that these fun type of musical performances are worth trying in new territory.

"I'm not sure it currently has a big fanbase, but we are looking at introducing something new, we are looking at developing it. Why do we choose this kind of music? Because it's very engaging. So that's why we try with shake the lake," said Brice Pean, General Manager of Sunrise Kempinski Hotel, Beijing Yanqi Island.

Guests are encouraged to get in the "flapper" spirit of glamour and sophistication with a 1930's dress code.

And just like with previous festivals, all kinds of free-style dancing throughout the concert is more than welcome!

Musicians at "Shake the Lake" say that they are very interested in Chinese music elements, and would like to incorporate them into their future performances in China.

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