The 2019 Taihu Culture Season features a number of quality performances. [Photo/wxrb.com]

The 2020 Taihu Culture Season, a keenly awaited cultural and art extravaganza, will be held in Wuxi, Jiangsu province from October to November.

The event is aimed at showcasing the cultural charm and artistic achievements of the city and boosting its nighttime economy.

A meeting was held on Sept 7 to delegate preparation work for the event.

Successfully held in the past eight years, the Taihu Culture Season usually coincides with the Wuxi leg of the China Shanghai International Art Festival, which was suspended this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, expectations of the culture season this year are even higher than before.

During the season, there will be more than a hundred offline activities themed around six major topics including classical stage shows, traditional Chinese operas, and art exhibitions.

This year's stage shows will have 28 performances, including concerts featuring renowned baritone Liao Changyong and members of Super Vocal, a male vocal ensemble that rose to fame through the Hunan Satellite TV Station reality show of the same name in 2018. 

Other highly anticipated events include the special concert by the Jiangsu Symphony Orchestra which will celebrate Beethoven's 250th birthday, and the acrobatic performance New Circus Dawn in Shanghai that marked the beginning of last year's Shanghai International Arts Festival. Viewers will also have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the large-scale epic drama that describes monk Jianzhen's Buddhist missionary trip to Japan.

Traditional opera lovers will be treated to the famous dance drama Leifeng Pagoda that is presented in five different opera styles, and Wu Opera performances that depict a scene from the military opera Mu Guiying, which tells the story of a legendary female general. Meanwhile, productions like The Peony Pavilion (Bai Xianyong's Youth Edition) and the modern Bangzi opera Mother will highlight the latest trends in opera development.

A new addition to the culture season is the Meeting Good Life Festival, which will be held outdoors to the theme of "light up a better life with literature and art". The festival will feature influential musical groups performing symphonic audio-visual concerts, folk songs, and rock music.

Apart from live performances, audiences will get to browse a wide selection of goods at creative markets set up beside the stage. There will also be games aimed at enhancing parent-child interactions.

The themes of this year's art exhibitions are focused on the Grand Canal and Taihu Lake, as well as the building of a well-off society and the integration of the Yangtze River Delta. Compared with previous editions, this year's season will have significantly more individual exhibitions. Supplementing these exhibitions will be displays of works by well-known artists and young prodigies.

According to the organizers, government subsidies have helped lower the price of admissions for these shows and exhibitions.

Furthermore, people will be able to enjoy free performances by various troupes and amateur cultural groups. Free shows will be held in squares across in all districts, counties and county-level cities.

The 2020 Taihu Culture Season is hosted by the Wuxi government and organized by the Publicity Department of the CPC Wuxi Municipal Committee, the Binhu district government, the Wuxi Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, and the Wuxi Federation of Literary and Art Circles.