China's first kid-friendly music festival has big ambitions

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China’s first kid-appropriate, family-friendly international music festival has returned, allowing children in China to experience live music from around the world and learn about different cultures through music.

From January 5 to 8, the Hand in Hand International Children’s Music Festival is bringing a variety of music performances designed for children and their families to the cities Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou.

The Hand in Hand International Children's Music Festival event in 2017. / Handinhandchina.com Photo

Grammy and Emmy winner Lucky Diaz & The Family Jam Band from the United States and Hippe Gasten from the Netherlands have joined the crew, bringing their hits like “Pretty Princess” and “Pippi Longstocking” to audiences in China.

Husband and wife duo Lucky Diaz and Alisha Gaddis are two-time Latin Grammy Award and three-time Emmy Award winners. / Handinhandchina.com Photo

Hippe Gasten, a Dutch rock band for kids. / handinhandchina.com Photo

The brains behind the music festival are Chinese musician and songwriter Liu Jian and American journalist Rebecca Kanthor, a couple with two children living in Shanghai.

Liu and Kanthor were brought together by their mutual love for music in 2005. The couple enjoyed going to music festivals together, until they had their first baby and discovered there were no family-friendly music festivals in China.

Liu and Kanthor with their children. / handinhandchina.com Photo

As their children grew older, Liu also found that though the music industry in China was experiencing rapid growth, most songs for children remained outdated. In comparison, he discovered that children’s music abroad had long evolved in style and genres to cater today's young audience.

The couple decided to hold musical festivals and introduce Chinese families to the latest children’s music from around the world.

Their first music events were held in June 2017; over 15,000 families came to dance and sing to the live music that was still new to China.

Children enjoy live music at Hand in Hand's music festival event in 2017. /handinhandchina.com Photo

While touring in provincial cities, the couple also gave out free tickets to children from migrant workers’ families. “We know some families may hesitate in spending money on cultural events, but we want to invite these families and their kids to enjoy music as well,” Liu told Chinese news outlet The Paper in an interview on Saturday.

Liu and Kanthor has set a goal for the next five years – to invite the best and coolest children’s music bands from 10 countries to perform in 100 Chinese cities.

“In the future, we hope to move our stage from indoor to outdoor, on the grass and under the sky,” Kanthor told The Paper. “We want to include food, design and cultural events into the festival and show Chinese families about the diverse childhood across the world.”