Chongqing - On the evening of Sep 4, more than 600 locals and guests gathered on the plaza outside the Chongqing Urban Planning Exhibition Hall for the second regular installment of A Concert Night in Chongqing on Nanbin Road. This weekly Friday series is fast becoming the city's signature cultural fixture.
The second regular concept features folk music (photo: event organizer)
The venue, the same riverside platform used as a stage for CCTV's Spring Festival Gala earlier this year, faces the glittering confluence of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers. Against that backdrop, the evening unfolded across three distinct segments, each designed to bridge high art, grassroots creativity, and local identity.
The Chongqing Symphony Orchestra opened the "Classics" segment with Lights of China, its notes drifting over the water as the skyline blazed behind them. A coloratura soprano followed with the Mayila Variations, trilling through rapid-fire passages, while a saxophonist delivered a smoky rendition of My Heart Will Go On. Verdi's Drinking Song and a quartet performance of Song of the Yangtze River rounded out the classical half, grounding the concert in professional polish.
Chongqing Symphony Orchestra presents fascinating performances in the concert (photo: event organizer)
The middle section, "Sound Wave Original Power," pivoted sharply toward youth culture. Curated by music incubator Yinlang Engine, the segment showcased SpongeBaby, a local R&B group debuting two new songs —
Old Stool and
Beautiful World — alongside a solo set from emerging artist Gao Yuanchi, who performed an insert song from the anime
Shrouding the Heavens and an original track titled
She's Perfect. The platform is part of a broader effort to give young musicians regular, professional stages, embodying the series' philosophy that "everyone can create, everyone can perform."
The final segment, "Voice of Chongqing," leaned into crossover experimentation. Symphony Orchestra member Zhao Haoxin fused a
Mission: Impossible medley with Sichuan opera face-changing, letting Western brass collide with the sudden flash of painted masks. Latin dance champions Feng Xianzhe and Zhao Peipei — both students at Chongqing Media Vocational College and recent winners at a national competition in Nanjing — brought fiery cha-cha and rumba to the riverside stage. The segment also featured a tender male-female duet and a contemporary folk arrangement of
Ambush from Ten Sides.
The concert is the latest piece of a deliberate "Friday-Saturday" dual-core strategy: Friday nights belong to the Nanbin Concert's blend of symphony, pop, and open-mic culture, while Saturdays feature the city's established symphony series and drone light shows. Together, they are meant to convert Nanbin Road from a scenic viewpoint into a cultural destination.
Latin dance is another highlight of the second regular concept (photo: event organizer)
All performances are livestreamed globally through Diyi TV's media platforms. With one launch show and two regular performances now complete, organizers say the series is gaining momentum as a city cultural IP — one that uses melody as a thread to weave together tourism, nightlife, and identity. The invitation stands for every Friday evening: show up, feel the river wind, and let the music do the rest.
