Lullaby for a hectic world

The Beijing Music Festival will open with an outdoor staging of a groundbreaking Max Richter piece that literally encourages the audience to fall asleep, Chen Nan reports.

It's not altogether usual for visitors to spend the whole night out on the Great Wall, but that's just what is about to happen at the opening concert of the Beijing Music Festival on Oct 4 - when German-born British composer Max Richter performs his groundbreaking eight-hour work, Sleep.

The performance will begin on Friday, October 4, at 10 pm and will wrap up at 6 am the next morning. Providing beds, the event organizers will encourage the audience to sleep out at the foot of the Shuiguan section of the Badaling Great Wall in Beijing and soak up the music.