Steven McKinney has a familiar expat story. He came to China for two years to teach and travel and eight years later he still calls Beijing home. He is now a manager and consultant for Imagination Station ESL Preschool, but you might know him better as Stevie Mac of the Mac Daddies. This educator and musician shares my love of great music for all ages, so I thought I would ask him his favorite family-friendly concerts and venues for all of us to enjoy in the new year.

You’re in education, why is music important for early growth and development? Why should parents invest time and money in music experiences?
Music is a fundamental tool that helps us learn and connect with one another. Playing music and singing songs is not only educational but it’s fun obviously! Children learn faster and with more enthusiasm when music and singing is involved. There is a direct correlation between music and improved child development. It enhances a child’s mind, body, and spirit, and serves as a conduit to self-expression. An investment in music is an investment in a child’s growth and betterment.

What makes a concert family-friendly?
A family-friendly concert would be one where family gatherings are encouraged, with music that takes the families into consideration. The same methods that parents use to decide which movies their kids can watch should also be used when going to see a concert. The music and its performers should be kid-friendly.

What makes a venue family-friendly?
Venues or locations that promote child fun and safety – restaurants, park gatherings, and day festivals are all good choices.

What are some of your favorite places in Beijing to go see live music with kids?
The Beijinger Burger Festival and Pizza Festival are two great events for the whole family. Their stations and concessions center around food, and the stage performances are catered to family involvement. It’s an excellent choice for doing something fun with the kids. Personally, I’m a fan of Homeplate SLT for live music for children. I’ve hosted several music fundraisers at Homeplate and I saw just recently that Homeplate hosted a Christmas Carol Event which was catered to families. East Beijing Hotel has really stepped up their game with hosting fun families events as well.

Confession time…I hate the song “Baby Shark.” What are your top five kid-friendly songs that won’t make parents crazy?
Haha, well there is definitely too much of a good thing. If I never heard “Let It Go” again for the rest of my life, I’d be okay with that, haha!  I’d say:

• “Can’t Stop the Feeling” – Justin Timberlake
• “Happy” – Pharrell
• “Try Anything” – Shakira
• “I’m a Believer” – Smashmouth
• “Life is a Highway” – Rascal Flatts

Wishing you and your family a music-filled 2022!

KEEP READING: Giving Underprivileged Angels Their First Christmas

Images: Steven McKinney

The Loreli Affordable Art Market is back again and bringing the crème de la crème of Beijing’s illustrators, photographers, and crafters together for a lovely Sunday of artsy commerce. The Affordable Art Market is unique in its mission to only sell art that’s not only something beautiful, challenging, or just a souvenir for those Beijing days, but also affordable. Plus it’s good to know that your money will be supporting the creatives in your local community.

There will also be plenty of baked goods and other concessions available for purchase, along with drinks from the good folks at Yue Space.

If you can stay until 8 pm, that’s when the real excitement begins with live music courtesy of Beijing Underground Summer Music Days event. Not often are you given the opportunity to expose your kids to some of the excellent music Beijing has cultivated throughout the years, in a healthy, clean environment. Make a day of it and explore the hutongs while you’re at it.

It all goes down at Yue Space in Beixinqiao, from 2-7pm on June 3. The venue is inside so there should be no concern that the rain might put a damper on things, and best of all admission is free. Scan the QR code above for more information on Loreli and all of the fantastic things they do.

Photos: courtesy of Loreli and beijing-underground.com

Etonkids rocks, quite literally! They will be hosting a musical charity event this weekend at DDC (January 20)  to get you and your friends (or kids of an appropriate age) your musical fix.

Performing will be such fixtures of the Beijing live music scene like Joker’s Belief, Dan Taylor, Solid Gold, and Nocturnes. It just so happens that three of the four of these stupid good musical acts listed feature teachers from Etonkids. What’s more, and probably the best part of all is that all proceeds go to a great cause! This goal of this event is to raise awareness for the Magic Hospital charity so they can continue carrying on the great work that they do.

Magic Hospital was born at Beijing Ertong hospital 15 years ago. They work with sick, hospitalized, handicapped, orphaned, abused, and at-risk children aged 0-18 who are permanently or temporarily deprived of a carefree and fun childhood. Like all charitable organizations, they depend on the kindness of those willing to donate to keep their doors open, and those beautiful children cared for.

Through the tireless dedication of determined volunteers, endless energy of Chinese clowns and other performers, art and English teachers, the support from the hospital and orphanage staff, international schools, individuals inside and outside China – Magic Hospital was able to form a compassionate organization committed to making a positive impact in the lives of these sick, neglected, and lonely children.

Once again the show will be going down on Saturday, January 20, at DDC (doors open at 8:30 pm). Tickets are RMB 60 advance, or RMB 80 at the door.

While this show probably wouldn’t be the ideal Saturday night activity for younger kids as it starts at 9 pm and will likely be going late, we full-heartedly support parents of teens to bring your kids to check out these bands as this should be an eye/ear-opening experience for any young person interested in the wonderful tradition of songcraft. To top it all of a wide variety of genres should be explored on this night ranging from folk and rock to R&B so that nobody will be going home without a foot tapped or hip shaken.

Maybe you grew up in a quaint town like mine and occasionally had to endure a community art festival. Hundreds of booths lined up the avenue of a small downtown, with vendors selling everything from ceramic coffee mugs in the shape of funny heads to sand art. I’ll admit these are ideal for families, but they hardly ever have anything that you would want to hang on your wall and art can be quite pricey. If you equally loath these fairs celebrating basic at best crafting, then this artsy event should be a breath of fresh air!

The Loreli Affordable Art Market is back for the fifth time and bringing more artists together than ever before. The market attracts the crème de la crème of Beijing’s emerging painters, illustrators, photographers, and masters of mixed-media. The Affordable Art Market is unique in its mission to only sell art so you can buy something beautiful, challenging, or just a souvenir for those Beijing days, while knowing that your money will be supporting the creative scene in your local community.

There will also be plenty of delicious concessions around for you to choose from. Our slew of vendors includes Jennie’s Oven who will be bringing a variety of baked goods and Antlers who are known for their avant-garde Taiwanese bao which the Beijinger likened to a cross between a taco and roujiamo.

If you can stay until 8pm, that’s when the real excitement begins with live music from Su Zixu, The Harridans, and Nocturnes. Not often are you given the opportunity to expose your kids to some of the excellent music Beijing has cultivated throughout the years, in a healthy, clean environment.

It all goes down at Yue Space in Beixinqiao, from 2-8pm. The venue is inside so there should be no concern that the rain might put a damper on things, and best of all admission is free. Scan the QR code above for more information on Loreli and all of the fantastic things they do.

photos: courtesy of Loreli

This August, get your act together and gear up to enter this nationwide battle of the bands, hosted by the Midikids Art Program. Midi has held nearly 100 live music programs for children, providing young rockers with an opportunity to show off their talent on a professional platform.

There will be two competing age groups of Children (6-12) and Teenagers (13-17). Anyone who lives in China with a valid ID Card is welcome to register in one of two categories: Band Competition or Individual Competition. Participating bands must each have a guitar (or ukelele), a bass, and a drummer. They will be judged as a group based on the track’s completeness and accuracy, orchestration level, music expressiveness, original creativity, stage style, and for national finals, online popularity. Individuals can compete with electric guitar, electric bass, or on the drums, and will be judged by playing skills, tone control and performance, mastery and understanding of musical style, overall music playing expressiveness, and in the quarter-final and finals, how well they are able to play the Midi graded music exam scores.

The competition will consist of a preliminary round, quarter-finals, and national finals. Preliminaries will take the form of submitted videos (one original track or cover), and winners will be announced August 20. Quarter-finals will take place in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Chengdu, and Shenzhen, where musicians will be required to perform onstage. All this culminates in the grand finale at Shenzhen’s Midi Music Festival in December 2017.

Online registration runs from May 20 to July 31, so make sure you meet the deadline! As for awards, the quarter-finals and finals rounds will have first, second, and third prize winners, a Best Live Performance award, and Best Original Creative Works award. The champion band takes home a Champion Cup, Official Certificate, offers from Midi Music Festival for an entire year, album plans, and more, soon to be determined, prizes! So what are you waiting for? Embark on your journey to becoming a rock star!

Photo: princehenrys.worcs.sch.uk

The annual Morning Tears Charity BBQ is back for its ninth year, and will be held on Saturday May 23, in the luscious green gardens of the Embassy of Belgium.

The Morning Tears Alliance was set up in China in 1998, and is an international non-profit organization that stands up for children of convicts by raising awareness of issues surrounding these children and supporting them through various projects.

“Morning Tears dreams of a world in which the rights of the child are available to all children of prisoners. In this world, all people would consider it their duty to help create a loving and caring environment for children of prisoners, in which respect and understanding gain the way from biases and prejudices. Governments of all nations would continuously safeguard the interests of children of prisoners. Morning Tears dreams of a world where children of prisoners grow up with dignity with a fair chance to develop their full potential,” they write on their website.

The event on Saturday kicks off at 12.30pm and is family-friendly, with facilities and games for children (think bouncy castles, face painting, and more), live music, a lucky draw with tones of prizes, Belgian beer and waffles by The Tree, Belgian food by Morel’s, and wine by Temple Restaurant Beijing. Although the buffet closes at 4pm, there will be waffles and hot dogs until late.

Tickets (drinks not included) cost RMB 150 for children at the gate, RMB 130 if bought in advance, and RMB 260 for adults at the gate, and RMB 220 in advance. For tickets or more information, contact the organization at info@morningtears.info or contact one of the organizers: Sofie at sofie.devoldere@morningtears.org, Luc at poppe.luc@gmail.com, or Gemma at gemma.guo@morningtears.org.cn.

This post first appeared on thebeijinger.com on May 18, 2015

Photo: Morning Tears

Next Friday, May 15, Beijing City International School (BCIS) will host its annual Rockfest with the 2015 show set to showcase a range of talented bands from various international schools in Beijing. The event promises to unite bands of all genres in a lively and entertaining performance for all. All proceeds from Rockfest 2015 will go towards BCIS’s in-school charity, Help a Child Smile, which helps fund surgeries for orphans with cleft palates and lips. Notably, Rockfest is a student-led event. We spoke with this year’s student organizer 17-year-old Halim Park about putting on Rockfest 2015.

Tell us more about the festival.
BCIS first rock festivals in 2011 and 2012 were called “Rock in da Plaza,” and were managed by BCIS’ Student Council. I came to BCIS in 2012 and have been involved in rock bands since. Last year, my previous band’s leader hosted this event with the name “Rockfest 2014.” As a current leader of my band, August 35, I had the idea of hosting Rockfest 2015 to keep the rock festival as a school tradition.  More importantly, hosting a music festival was one of my dreams. This is my first time to organize this event, and I really hope it turns out to be an amazing concert.  

What were your responsibilities as a student organizer?
As [both]student organizer and as leader of my band, there was a lot of work for me to organize. I am responsible for contacting other school bands, borrowing equipment in school, promoting in as many ways as possible (WeChat, posters, magazine, website), selling tickets in school, and looking for sponsors in and out of the school. As my band leader, I am also responsible for rehearsing and putting songs together for the performance.

How did you divide the work among other students?
We had a group of five students as the main leaders of this event: Celine Lim, Yulin Chen, Cheryl Zhang, Matt Kim, and me. Celine helped with designing posters and coming up with awesome descriptions to promote the event. Yulin will be in charge of the LED screen and recording and Cheryl will be in charge of light. Since Cheryl is an IB drama student, she knows a lot about lighting, equipment, and how they work on stage. Matt Kim is the bassist of my band and he has been helping me contact other bands personally. Since we had to do all this while keeping up with our IB coursework, it has been quite challenging.  

What role did teachers play in helping organize Rockfest 2015?
Mr.Hutchinson, BCIS’ secondary school principal, approved Rockfest and helped us contact others to manage equipment as well as food-selling vendors. Ms. Hopping, the music teacher at BCIS, mainly helped us come up with ideas for the event and helped me print posters. Since she knows a lot about stage set up, she will also help with setting up the equipment. Most importantly, BCIS’s marketing department, including Mr. Longrigg and Ms.Zhang, helped us to promote Rockfest in and out of school, to find sponsors, and gave us a lot of advice on how to promote an event.

Can you tell us more about some of the bands that will play at Rockfest?
[As of now], there are around eight bands from five different international schools in Beijing including Beijing World Youth Academy (BWYA), Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) and The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China (Renmin Dazhong RDFZ). Various genres will be played ranging from acoustic, funk fusion, to rock and metal. There will also be original compositions and our own arrangements of existing songs. Since I do not know every single band and their songs personally, I really look forward to their performances.  

Is there anything else you would like to add?
Currently, we have BCIS’ Parent Teacher Association and Aramark (BCIS’ food supplier) confirmed to sell food at the event. The PTA will provide snacks and drinks while Aramark will sell hotdogs, pizza, and so on.

See below for event details:
What:  BCISRockfest 2015
Where:  Sunken Plaza at BCIS’ main campus. 77 Baiziwan Nan Er Lu
When: Friday, May 15 from 5pm-8.30pm

Price: RMB 20 per person or purchase tickets online here

ID required: Students attending will be asked to provide their full name, school’s name, grade, and will be asked to present their student ID. Non-BCIS community  are to bring a form of ID for entrance to the campus.

  Photo: FMWRC (flickr)

Looking for a musical way to celebrate the winter holiday season with the little ones? In collaboration with Family Musik Fun, Jintai Art Museum will host an interactive holiday music party this Sunday, December 14 for kids and families. The event will be offered in two sessions and will have kids singing, dancing, clapping, and tapping for an hour of old tunes, rhymes, and rhythms. Families can enjoy live guitar, saxophone, percussion, harmonica, and vocals. See below for details.

When: Sunday, December 14.
Where: Jintai Art Museum (Chaoyang Park, No. 1 West Gate)
Who: Kids ages 0-7 years old and families.
Time: First session- 10-11am. Second session- 3.30-4.30pm
Price: RMB 250 (one adult and one child); RMB 100 for each additional family member
Dress: Come dressed comfortably in holiday colors
Discount: To receive the early bird 20% discount, purchase tickets today

Contact: To register or for more information, email Event@FamilyMusikFun.com , register via WeChat (WeChat ID: FamilyMusikFun), or call or text Chloe at 152 1005 8553. Remember to include which session you are registering for, number of participants, names, children’s ages, and a contact number.

Tickets will not be available at the door, so families must register by Saturday, December 13. Be sure to bring your own picnic mat or blanket as the day’s festivities will take place on a marble floor.

Family Musik Fun is a music studio which offers parent-child music and after school programs. With five years experience, the studio held their first parent-child Christmas concert last year at the British School of Beijing (BSB Sanlitun Campus).

Photo: US Army Corps of Engineers Europe District (flickr)

This year, FOBISIA (Federation of British International Schools in Asia) Music Festival is being held at Harrow International School and will showcase the talents of some of the finest young musicians in Asia. This year over 200 musicians from ten British schools throughout Asia will participate in FOBISIA. The music festival officially kicked off yesterday, and will culminate on Monday, November 17 with a Gala Concert at 6pm and is open to the whole Beijing community.

In previous years, the FOBISIA has been held in Southeast Asian countries, most recently at Garden International School in Thailand. Students and teachers take part in workshops, ensembles, and rehearsals for the final concert.

For free tickets, register for the Gala on Harrow’s website.

Questions or concerns, contact Jenny Finch, director of music at Harrow International School Beijing jenny@fobisiamusic.com

Photo: wikimediacommons