MUSIC festivals are blossoming around China and more than 100 are expected to stage this year, but most of them lose money and don't make a second appearance. Yao Minji explains why the show will go on.

The first Chengdu BigLove Music Festival ended on a false note, with the organizer claiming a loss of more than 50 million yuan (US$7.86 million), including unpaid bills to crew members and hotel.

On the other hand, the four-day festival that ended last Sunday was a big success in numbers and quality.

It's the largest music festival in China, featuring 100 top-notch groups and individuals in rock, pop, folk and other genres and DJs from China and overseas. British band Suede performed, as did China's rock legend Cui Jian.

Many music industry insiders and musicians not associated with the festival call it the best in sound and stage they have seen in China.

Organizer Chen Shu later told a newspaper that he had expected to lose money, but not so much and he would stage the festival again next year. He had hoped to sell 8,000 tickets every day, earning around 40 million yuan, according to the West China City Daily in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province.

But he said most fans entered without buying tickets. One-day tickets sold for almost 300 yuan, double the cost at most other festivals.

But the fact that the best fest lost the most money sheds light on the emerging and booming Chinese music festival scene and reveals its problems.

In 2000, the now acclaimed Midi Music Festival was nearly the one and only. It kept losing money until 2007, when it merely broke even and when there were still only a handful of outdoor music festivals in China.

In the past five years, music festivals have blossomed throughout China. It was reported that there were more than 70 festivals in 2011, with many putting on their first and last show.

"BigLove has directly harmed its crew members and given the music festival market a bad image. The increasing number of festivals has created a false image of prosperity, but it really is just starting," Yin Liang, vice editor-in-chief of online video site letv.com, writes in his weibo microblog. His video site has worked with many festivals.

Nanwu, a Beijing-based band, performed in 56 music festivals last year and sometimes found themselves in unprofessional situations. Sometimes "the assistant and sound engineers on the stage don't even know what they are doing and there's no backstage resting rooms for any performers," Yin wrote.

Facilities and accommodation for performers is one of the biggest issues, generating a lot of complaints, according to Shanghai-based American tour organizer Abe Deyo from Idaho, who has worked with many Chinese festivals to book Western bands.

Considering the increasing number of festivals in China and rising interest in the West, from West, one would expect more and more famous Western bands to play in China in the future.

"It is more likely to be the opposite. You'll probably see fewer Western bands, especially the big ones, playing at Chinese festivals," Deyo says.

"Most music festival organizers here don't know how to treat these famous bands. They don't get what they deserve and usually have in other places. And they can't really attract a much biggesr audience to the festivals, because most people who go there are for the general atmosphere rather than just one band."

Despite commercial sponsorships and financial cooperation from local tourist bureaus, very few music fests made money and even fewer stage more than once or twice, though the number is expected to increase to more than 100 this year.

"Ninety-nine percent of the music festivals in China are losing money. But the future potential of this market is huge, despite the immature market. We need to be very patient," says Zhang Fan, founder and chief operator of Midi.

"BigLove was great, but they aimed too big and we are not ready for that scale yet."

His view is shared by many - investors, festival organizers, musicians and crew members - who are not the least bit frightened or put off by the huge financial loss of BigLove.

Jason Wu, a Hangzhou-based investor and event planner, has been planning an outdoor festival in western China. The final location hasn't been decided but he hopes to get it all worked out by September.

"I've done my homework and I know most festivals in China don't even make money, but it's more than that. The spending power of young Chinese has increased so quickly in the past five years that we expect it to rise even more. So you need to get there, get your names known by them before everyone else does. And what's better way to penetrate the youth market than music?" he says.

"It's not current profit that I'm worried about. This outdoor leisure style is gradually and efficiently getting there to young people, and there is the huge market value."

The various festivals, on different scales and professional levels, have also provided more opportunities for Chinese musicians during the global downturn of the music industry and the unending problem of piracy in China.

Independent musicians and bands have benefited greatly from the festivals, getting more gigs, more fans, more experience and more money.

"Music festivals have definitely improved lives of musicians since they get more income from these commercial performances. They live better and then can take their minds off the problem of how to pay for their next meal, letting them make more great music," Li Hongjie, music critic and organizer of the Zhangbei Grasslands Music Festival, says. The fest kicks off in Zhangbei County, Hebei Province.

"Their agents will make more money and the entire music industry, to some extent, has been improved," Li says.

Many musicians and record labels have started an Internet campaign to save BigLove and the music festival market in general, in hopes that one huge financial flop will not put a damper on the fun.