Yu Yuanfan

aimee3031@126.com

THE 2020 Belt & Road Shenzhen International Music Festival is greeting Shenzheners with waving hands while the happy memories of the 2019 event still linger.

The 2020 event, the fourth in as many years, will kick off in late March, according to the festival’s official WeChat account.

The year 2020 will mark the 40th anniversary of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven. Special performances will be presented during the music festival as a celebration. No further details are currently available.

In order to promote cultural communication and collaboration among the countries along the Belt and Road, as well as the rest of the world, Shenzhen, as the bridgehead of the “21st-century Maritime Silk Road,” has been hosting the festival annually since 2017.

Co-hosted by the Shenzhen government and Chinese Musicians’ Association, the festival aims to gather first-class art troupes and musicians from countries and regions along the Belt and Road, showcase the unique characteristics of their music and strengthen people’s friendship across the region.

In three years, the festival has featured a variety of musical performances, including orchestral concerts, recitals, choir concerts and operas, to feast the ears and eyes of the audience.

With this in mind, the Shenzhen government has subsidized ticket prices to enable more people to attend the musical event.

Audience members are able to enjoy diverse types of music, including classical, pop and Western as well as Eastern styles of music.

Art activities, including lectures, are also held at local universities and public venues during the festival.

The festival is a symphony of mutual understanding and shared world civilization that gathers the world’s best cultural and artistic products to add to the cultural welfare of the citizens of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

At the same time, it actively explores and cultivates young artistic talents, encourages and promotes artistic creation, and has become the new symbol for Shenzhen’s progress in culture development and international cultural communication.

It is also part of Shenzhen’s efforts to increase participation in the Belt and Road Initiative and build itself into an international pioneer city in the cultural and creative sectors.

Shenzhen is a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, with culture and creativity as important factors in the city’s urban development, Francesco Bandarin, special adviser to the UNESCO director-general, said in his congratulatory letter to the 2019 edition of the music festival.