Xie Tianxiao performs at the Midi Music Festival in 2017 and at the festival camp at Taihu Lake, Jiangsu province, in 2018. [Photo by Yan Min/For China Daily]

In 2009, when the festival celebrated its 10th birthday, it was staged over three days in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province, a small city about three hours from Shanghai by train. It was the first time that the event had been held away from Beijing, and it attracted more than 30,000 fans.

"It was challenging to launch a large-scale music festival in a fresh city, watched by new fans. I remember that many of them traveled to Zhenjiang from Beijing and other parts of the country, making the event that year a great success," Shan said.

He added that due to this, the local government invited the festival to return to the city the following year, when it attracted audiences of 120,000 over four days.

This development saw the festival start to spread its wings further, and last year, cities staging the event included Suzhou, Chengdu and Dezhou, Shandong.