China Shanghai Event Blog

There are times in life that you find yourself in a forest. Not a metaphorical one. I’m not depressed. I mean an actual forest. Imagine trees and darkness, bird sounds, the whole foresty works.

It’s not THAT often that the forest is indoors. Not very often at all in fact. You don’t really come across members of indie bands in forests either. Or freshly prepared fruity drinks. Or a wishing tree filled with pleas to ‘be able to fly’ or ‘ be a fairy.’

However I do tend to find that recently anything can happen, hence I found myself sat in this very forest on a frosty Shanghai night, huddled in a furry parka and sipping vodka on ice.

I had not stumbled across this winter wonderland via a wardrobe or one-way ticket back to Moscow. I was in fact at the second Smirnoff Global Experience event at the Shanghai Sculpture Centre, a vast space guarded outside by twisty pieces of metal and gigantic steel cars.

After working my way through said Birch Tree forest I fell straight into a crowd of happy revellers all heading towards the giant Smirnoff stage with the steely intent of a budget zombie film. Their enthusiasm became clear when I saw Tom Middleton, Sasha and Hard-Fi limbering up for a night of original performances including drum battles and performances with local artists.

I had to tear myself away to film the different features including a ‘Tini’ bar with four different martinis to test, a DIY drinks bar with over 1300 different combinations of drinks to choose from and a Smirnoff Ice blizzard complete with fresh snowfall on request.

Covered in a thin film of snow and still wearing my jacket I managed to get to the front of the crowd to support English indie band Hard-Fi who were facing stiff competition from the Shanxi drummers, a local Chinese speciality. The drummers were playing along to Hard Fi’s hit ‘Hard to Beat. When I interviewed the band earlier in the day their drummer confessed to fearing being outdone but he somehow managed to be heard over the intense Shanxi beat fest. The combination of the huge Chinese drums and Hard Fi’s guitar strummery really worked and even Monsieur Hip Hop, Ben Robinson was to be found shaking his butt like you never did see at the front of the crowd.

After Tom Middleton came back on to play out the night to the baying crowd we slipped off to see Sasha at the after party at The Wall - a trendy underground den complete with hanging chairs and secret rooms.

This was the final straw for my overexcited little brain and I had to take myself off to bed dreaming of basil martinis and magical forests and of course…the next Smirnoff event.