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In warm conditions on the first day of a
five-day May Day national holiday revelers in the central
Chinese city danced, bounced and screamed with delight as some
of their favorite acts took the stage.
The festival was making a return in Wuhan after it was forced to
be online only last year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
A representative for the organisers told Reuters that numbers
were being restricted this year, adding that around 11,000
people were there on Saturday. Barriers were set up in front of
each stage and security personnel restricted numbers in those
areas. Some spectators wore masks, but many did not.
People in Wuhan, where COVID-19 first emerged, lived through
more than two months of stringent restrictions during the
world's first coronavirus-induced lockdown. Since then the city
has been almost completely virus-free, according to official
data. That and the general trend in recent months in the
country, which has only reported a few sporadic outbreaks, has
greatly eased fears in China about the virus.
"Last year we (in Wuhan) suffered from the coronavirus," said
23-year-old student and Wuhan resident Gao Yuchen.
"It has not been easy to get to where we are today. People here
have put in huge efforts and paid a big price (for being hit
with the virus). So I feel very excited to be here (at the
festival)," Gao said.
The two-day event brings together well-known and not so
well-known domestic singers and bands across three stages in
Wuhan's Garden Expo park. Sister "Strawberry Music Festival"
events are being held in other cities, including Beijing, during
the national holiday. Attendees came to Wuhan from all over the
country, like 29-year-old Zhang Hongkai, from Shijiazhuang in
Hebei province.
"This is my first time at an event like this held outdoors,"
Zhang said. "I really like the atmosphere."
Mainland China reported 16 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, down
from 13 a day earlier, the country's national health authority
said on Saturday.
All the new cases were imported infections originating overseas,
the National Health Commission said in a statement.
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China
now stands at 90,671, while the death toll remains unchanged at
4,636, many of whom were Wuhan residents.
China carried out about 11.6 million vaccinations against
COVID-19 on Friday, bringing the total number administered to
more than 265 million, according to data released by the
National Health Commission on Saturday.
(Reporting by Martin Quin Pollard; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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