Results tagged “cancellations”

Up until yesterday, it'd been smooth sailing for Shanghai's first Pride week. But as of Wednesday afternoon, the festival, a celebration of gay pride and social tolerance, ran into some problems with the authorities. Officials from a Shanghai commercial bureau visited and warned the owners of two venues that they would face "severe consequences" if they failed to cancel the events that were to be held there.

UPDATE, 17:15: An article over on Sina (link in Chinese) is pointing to policing problems and a lack of adequate security as the cause of Midi's demise (a claim seconded by theBeijinger) whilst also quoting festival organiser Zhang Fan as saying that "a postponement is possible, but only possible, there has not been a definitive decision yet". Meanwhile, CityWeekend also quote Zhang: "I'd rather not say right now. There will be an announcement tomorrow". That, to Shanghaiist at least, sounds like a stall for time to inform all the artists/promoters etc. before making the postponement public. CW do state however that the (obviously) smaller-scale Mini Midi festival will still go ahead.

To be frank, we were kind of hoping that we wouldn't have to do a whole post about Celine Dion on Shanghaiist, but then this article from China Daily struck us as somewhat odd and we felt we should share our cynicisms with you.