by Harley Jones who also attended the Tacheng Festival
Click each picture to see in large size.
AAA and ATG Board Member Kevin Friedrich, Confédération Internationale des Accordéonistes (CIA) Ambassador and Chairman of the CIA World Accordion Museum Alliance, was invited this month to attend the 2025 Xin Jiang Tacheng International Accordion Culture and Art Festival and participate in a seminar and meetings with the Tacheng Accordion Museum.
The Tacheng Festival also featured an attempt to achieve a Guiness World Record for Accordion Ensemble.
Its about 6 hours flying time from Beijing or Shanghai across China to the picturesque city of Tacheng. Compare that with 5:30 hours flying time from NY to LA, to realise the distance.
Tacheng has farming economy and is only 6.2 miles from the border with Kazakhstan. Tacheng region is where Marco Polo travelled the Silk Road some 12 centuries ago. The accordion is almost a symbol of the city where accordion is so popular, that out of every 10 people there will be two or three who can play the accordion!
The three day festival began with an outdoor Opening Ceremony with about 7,500 audience. Note from the picture just below, the amazing stage graphics plus large numbers of accordionists, vocalists and dancers involved in this major concert. You can see also, the drone signwriting in the sky above the stage.
Day Two was the International Accordion Culture Exchange Event and seminars which included Executive members of the CIA (Mirco Patarini, Li Cong, Kimmo Mattila, Kevin Friedrich, Harley Jones, Grayson Masefield) talking about CIA international accordion activities with translations by CAA Executive Secretary Crystal Wang.
Tacheng Museum and CIA World Accordion Museum Alliance (Kevin Friedrich, Yulan Ma spoke) about future plans and then were part of the signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation between the two organisations.
The Tacheng Accordion Museum is the largest accordion museum in China and one of the largest in the world, and is housed in a very grand new building.
Guiness World Record Attempt
Also on Day Two was the amazing and historic Guiness World Record accordion ensemble attempt. Can you imagine over 5,000 accordionists all conducted by CIA Vice-President Prof. Li Cong. View the video just above and see this incredible event.
Imagine hundreds of school buses to bring nearly 5,000 plus school children accordionists, 5,000 plastic stools, 5,000 red t-shirts, 5,000 numbers on the ground and a number sticker on each accordion, drones flying around filming – an amazing musical mass of accordionists (certified 5,282 accordionists) that was great fun to be a part of.
The festival also included festival celebrations and memorable was a street concert by performers with the audience enjoying street food with an enthusiastic large Chinese audience.
The final day featured the Closing Ceremony with about 8,000 audience. Such huge enthusiastic audiences show the passion of Tacheng citizens for major accordion variety concerts. A great end to an exciting accordion festival.
Daily Reports and pictures of the 2025 Xin Jiang Tacheng International Accordion Culture and Art Festival at: https://accordions.news/daily-reports-16-august-2025-tacheng/
