"Big" is the buzzword best describing the annual Shanghai International Arts Festival, which opened yesterday.

Hosted by the Ministry of Culture and the Shanghai Municipal Government, the one-month carnival of arts is expected to keep the city in buoyant mood, despite the ending of the weekend's Formula 1 festivities.

"Our carnival is without doubt one of the biggest arts festivals in the world," said Yang Xiaodu, vice-major of Shanghai.

More than 1.2 million Shanghai residents and visitors from 65 countries and regions are expected to have fun at the performances, museums and galleries during the festival, which has run into its 7th year, according to Chen Shenglai, president of the festival's organizing committee. Last year the festival attracted 1 million visitors.

Adi Jetzr, a college student with an amateur Swiss band, said: "It was the first time that I played the tuba before such a big audience." 

Veterinary surgeon and amateur musician Roland Specker and his wife Friedel, who come from the small German town of Erolzheim, echoed the Swiss student's thoughts: "Shanghai has as large and as good an audience as we have at the annual Stuttgart carnival."

Jetzr and Specker, together with members of 20 other bands and troupes from China and abroad, performed at a local square for an audience of more than 10,000 on Monday night.

There will be 45 theatrical shows and 19 exhibitions of traditional and contemporary performance over the course of the month.

(China Daily October 19, 2005)