Beijing's festival season is well under way, with the capital being host to not one but four music festivals during the May Day holiday alone. But the musical mayhem doesn't end there: many more great events are coming up including the Hanggai Music Festival, the China Valley Music Festival and the Intro Music Festival. Here's a look at what to expect.

1) Hanggai Music FestivalView In Map
As the name suggests, this one is organised by the lads behind Hanggai, China's most popular (and successful) throat singing Mongolian rock band. This is the second consecutive year that the festival is taking place, and each year the emphasis is on world music – a musical niche which has arguably been largely overlooked by festival organizers until Hanggai came along. The festival takes place over two days at Beijing's roomy Mako Livehouse in Shuangjing and the multi-national line-up of acts certainly sounds alluring…from the beautiful and moving songs of Yemen Blues to the lively and vibrant tunes of Rhythm of Rajasthan, this festival will serve up some of the best sounds from a diverse range of regions. Click here for the full line-up and timetable.

When: May 5-6th, 16:00 onwards
Highlights: Yemen Blues (Yemen/Israel), Rhythm of Rajasthan (India), Hanggai (Inner Mongolia), Tiloun (Reunion Island), Windbone (Switzerland), Shanren, Ajinai, Lidong (China)
Where: Mako Livehouse, Inside Hongdian Art Factory, Courtyard 36 (500m south of Carrefour Shuangjing, inside small alley), Guangqu Lu, Chaoyang District
北京市朝阳区广渠路36号院红点艺术工厂内(幸福贝贝南边)麻雀
Price: 150 RMB per day
Tickets: http://www.damai.cn/ticket_36189.html

2) China Valley Music FestivalView In Map
Last year, this festival somehow managed to get Avril Lavigne, Juliet Lewis, KT Tunstall, Little Boots and Ladytron to perform. So, can this year's festival one-up that lineup?  Judging from its website, this year comes pretty close. 2012  foreign acts include Joss Stone, Husky Rescue (Finland), Pixie Lott (UK), School of Seven Bells (US), The Jesus and Mary Chain (Scotland), Glasvegas (Scotland), White Lies (UK) and Friendly Fires (UK). Meanwhile, the domestic bands aren't half bad either with Wang Feng, Xu Wei and Nova Heart among others. And for those who like to squeeze in a bit of exercise time between shows, Swedish exercise sensation Heyrobics will be there for both days encouraging you to shake your booty and burn off those beer calories.

When: May 18-19th
Where: Yuyang International Ski Resort, 688 Dawangwu Village, Donggaocun Town, Pinggu District, Beijing
北京市平谷区东高村镇大旺务村688号渔阳国际滑雪场
Price: 280 RMB (pre-sale, 1 day); 350 RMB (at door, 1 day); 480 RMB (pre-sale, 3 day pass); 580 RMB (pre-sale, 3 day pass)
Tickets: http://www.mypiao.com/ticket/43121
Website: www.cmvfestival.com
Getting there: Take public bus 918 from Dongzhimen (leaves every 10 minutes) and get off at Shijiguangchang 世纪广场 stop; and then take a taxi (costs about 15 RMB) to the ski resort

3) Intro Electronic Music Festival
Imagine a place with red brick factory chimneys, criss-crossing pipes and artsy buildings that once housed a factory. Now place a massive stage, funky stalls selling all sorts of party accessories and 20,000 psyched up revelers into that imagine and you've got some idea of what Intro is like. The fantastic industrial structures of D-Park in 798 form the perfect backdrop for electronic music and the buzzing atmosphere in past years has been hard to come by in Beijing. This year, Intro will feature three stages, 40 artists and an expected crowd of 20,000. Organised by Acupuncture Records, the line-up will no doubt include DJs under their own label (e.g. Ou Yang, Patrick Yu, Yang Bing, Mickey Zhang etc.) as well as a number of high-profile ones. A few names have been revealed so far including Brazilian DJ Gui Boratto, Christian Smith (Sweden), Anthony Collins (France), Michael Vonplon & Seelenluft (China).

When: May 26th, 13:00-22:00
Where: D-Park, inside 798, 4 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang District, Beijing
Price: 100-150 RMB (early bird tickets available at Lantern Club, 100 RMB until May 14th, 150 RMB until May 23rd); 300 RMB (at door)
Tickets: http://www.damai.cn/ticket_35509.html
Email: info@acupuncture-records.com
Website: http://acupuncture-records.com/

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Keywords: Music festivals in Beijing May Hanggai Music Festival 2012 2012 Intro electronic music festival 2012 China Music Valley Festival