In 2023, music fans traveled from across China to cities including Tai’an, Weifang and Qingdao. At the 2026 New Youth Music Festival in Dezhou, people born in the 1990s and 2000s accounted for 81.8 percent of attendees, while nearly 80 percent of festivalgoers came from outside the city. Some fans have even taken the high-speed train to Dezhou for three consecutive years to keep their appointment with the music.

　　Music has thus become a gateway through which young people discover a city.

　　In Sishui, the festival helped bring the county into the spotlight, while local specialties such as beef noodles became part of the experience for visitors. In Rizhao, festival tickets were linked to discounts at local attractions, turning a concert trip into a broader journey through the city. In Dezhou, some fans have gradually come to know the city through its transportation, food and everyday life, beginning with a music festival.

　　For Shandong, this means there are now more ways for a city to be discovered.

　　In the past, people might have come to know Shandong through Mount Tai, its coastline and the cultural heritage of Qilu. Today, some young people may arrive in a Shandong city for the first time simply because of a band or a song.

　　Rather than following a predetermined tourist itinerary, they experience the city for themselves. A concert, a local meal or a conversation with a stranger can all become part of a personal memory of the place.

　　The city is no longer simply presenting itself to young people. It is being experienced—and retold—by them.

　　The festival itself has also evolved through this movement.