The season is upon us, Beijing, and all over this fine city YOUR local DJ superstars are curating (downloading) only the very finest in nnn tsst, nnn tsst, nnn tsst for your personal enjoyment and illumination. Here's a rundown on the electronic side of things for the festival season two-oh-one-four. Click here if you like that rock 'n' roll music.

One day only, May 24 from 1pm to 11pm. Location/Transport: INTRO 2014 is back out at the Capital Steel Factory (Shougang), a massive derelict steel factory that looks like the showdown set in Terminator 2. Huge smokestacks shooting up to the skies, disused train tracks disappearing into overgrowth, tumbling crumbling warehouses -- it's all pretty rad. There's fucking wild dogs roaming around. Or maybe that was an acid flashback. Production value for INTRO is pretty staggering as well (or at least it was last year). Main stage looked like a drag queen's spaceship. Anyway, getting there, you're taking subway Line 1 all the way out west, getting out at the second to last stop -- Gucheng. From there you catch the festival-organized shuttle bus, a city bus, or black cab to the festival gates. It's like 2 kilometers away. In addition to that, festival organizers are going to be running buses from Gongti East Gate and Wudaokou. More information on those when it gets released. Line-up/Highlights: INTRO Fest is pure Beijing electronic talent on two stages (down a stage from INTRO 2013). Main Stage XLF, Mickey Zhang, Weng Weng, Huang Wei Wei, Dave K, Diva Li, Elvis T., Ouyang, Juliana Lima, Nee Bing The Syndicate Bass Stage Clir, Blackie, Donkey Tonk, Kay C, Chole, Howie Lee, Conrank, Yauman, Shackup, Einar, FLØØØD, Oshi, Compact Dicks. So, yeah, I think with the exception of Dave K, Elvis T., and Conrank, all of these acts are based in Beijing. The main stage is techno, house, and variations thereupon and The Syndicate Stage is drum 'n' bass, dubstep, future bass, and whatever else. Tickets: Tickets will be available in early bird (available from next week, 120rmb), pre-sale A (purchased before May 10, 180rmb), and pre-sale B (purchased after May 10, 240rmb) categories. Gate tickets... dunno... more than 240rmb. SmartTicket will be selling all categories of tickets just as soon as we get them next week. Check back then. After-party: Specific details are still TBD, but it's definitely happening at Lantern, the home club of festival organizers. A variation of the main stage DJs are going to be playing in the main room and The Syndicate is keeping it going in the small room. *

Three days. May 1, May 2, May 3. 1pm to 11pm. Location/Transport: Strawberry returns to Tongzhou Canal Park, which is a public park in (you guessed it) Tongzhou, between the 5th and 6th ring roads due east of the city center. Here it is on a map. There's a bunch of ways to get out there but how most everyone does it is to rinse out the subway all the way to Tongzhou Beiyuan. That's on the Batong Subway Line. From there the festival is like a 10-15 minute festival shuttle bus, cab, city bus, or black cab. Getting back, you're usually looking at pulling some friends together and negotiating a flat rate back to the city from a black cab. Suck it up. Even the pay taxis tend to go rogue and up their rates from Strawberry festival people. It's a seller's market. Line-up/Highlights: This year, Strawberry is placing a "bigger emphasis on electronic music", more so than they've ever done before, which basically means that they've booked Justice. Justice is playing on the main stage (Strawberry stage) on the first day, May 1, at 10pm. Oui, oui, les Joussssteeeeece. The other main, out-of-town highlights are Warren Fellow, a dutch techno producer headlining the second day, and AC Slater, headlining the third and final day. Both of these are playing the "Alienware • MAE Electronic Stage", which is your dedicated electronic music stage of the massive 90-stage festival. Here is the full line-up for the electronic stage: May 1 1:00-1:45pm - K.O.O.S. (Netherlands) 1:45-2:30pm - Rainbow High 2:30-3:30pm - Electronail (France) 3:30-4:30pm - Bite-Sized Buddha 4:30-5:30pm - Dexter 5:30-6:30pm - Mauro (Italy) 6:30-7:30pm - Atoned Splendor (UK) 7:30-8:30pm - BaseString (Netherlands) 8:30-9:30pm - Outsiders (Netherlands) VJ: Clockwork Q May 2 2:00-2:45pm - Da ZhaoGao 2:45-3:45pm - Square Loud 3:45-4:30pm - Jackson Lee 4:30-5:30pm - Danny Flora (UK) 5:30-6:30pm - BB Deng 6:30-7:30pm - XLF 7:30-8:30pm - Weng Weng 8:30-9:30pm - Warren Fellow (Netherlands) VJ: Clockwork Q May 3 2:00-3:00pm - Shackup 3:00-4:00pm - Yauman 4:00-5:00pm - Veeeky 5:00-6:00pm - Sulumi 6:00-7:00pm - Blackie 7:00-7:45pm - Howie Lee 7:45-8:30pm - Oshi 8:30-9:30pm - AC Slater (US) VJ: Clockwork Q Basically, it's sort of a "flavors of trance" thing on the first day, Beijing pride techno and tech house on the second, and catch-all "bass music" on the third. Tickets: You friendly neighborhood website SmartTicket is currently selling and delivering pre-sale tickets, right to your damn door. If you're picking and choosing a day, it's 180rmb pre-sale. A three day pass is 480rmb pre-sale. Gate rates are 260rmb per day and 680rmb for three. After-party: Strawberry has three official after-parties for each day of the festival. They are as follows: -May 1, Dada. Goa Productions is hosting their psychedelic day-glo wonderland featuring local and guest psytrance DJs. -May 2, Lantern. MAE & NB Noise pres. Warren Fellow. The Dutch headliner makes the trip into the city to play at Lantern with a bunch of BJ tech house DJs. 40rmb cover with a Strawberry ticket, 80rmb without. -May 3, Dada. Oshi and The Drop present NYC "night bass" founder and Trouble & Bass alum, AC Slater. 50rmb door. Sponsor is Urbanears. *

One day. June 1. Runs 1pm to 10:30pm. Location/Transport: Juyongguan Great Wall a.k.a. "Great Wall Impregnable Pass Best in the World". Location-wise, it's a mountain pass located in the Changping District of Beijing, about 60 kilometers from the city center. Here's the official tourist site for this section of the Great Wall. Your ticket comes with the option of purchasing a shuttle bus to and from the event, which is probably the easy way to get there. If you miss your shuttle bus, you're looking at taking a city shuttle bus -- Number 68 -- from the Longze Station off Line 13 in Changping District. Hey, good luck with that. By cab and car it's the Juyongguan Pass Exit off Badaling Expressway; consult the tourist site linked above for more information. Line-up/Highlights: Pretty massive if you're down with the most popular strains of electronic dance music for the last 15 years or so. Armin Van Buuren. Don Diablo. Afrojack. Paul Kalkbrenner. In terms of worldwide popularity, that's the biggest electronic music bill I've ever seen in China. On top of those, they've got a slew of locals and other international DJs supporting on two stages. Tickets: Tickets are available in General Admission and VIP categories. Have a look at what the difference is right here. Early bird GAs are 540rmb. Early bird VIPs are 740rmb. When those are gone, we move on into pre-sale country. GAs go up to 580rmb and VIP jump to 780rmb. On top of that, there's a shuttle bus fee is you want to take the bus. It's 60rmb. SmartTicket will be selling tickets for all categories by the end of this week. After-party: Too early to tell but yeah, there's going to be after-parties. Maybe on the wall itself at the super VIP hotel, maybe at Spark, maybe at both. We'll let you know. *

One day, June 13 at 9pm. Location/Transport: RELEASE in an "indoor EDM" thing from Modern Art Entertainment -- they're also behind the Strawberry Festival. "Indoor EDM" means big crazy stage and light show. See that first picture. The first one was in December of last year, and this is the followup, RELEASE II, occurring right in the middle of the busy festival season. This one's a one-off nighttime thing out at Tango in the city center. In getting there, I humbly suggest hoping into a cab. Or a subway, hey, whatever. Line-up/Highlights: Still a ways of yet but the main act this time around is Dutch house producer Vato Gonzalez with MC Tjen. More details TBA. Tickets: Tickets are early bird, 100rmb; pre-sale, 150rmb; VIP, 320rmb. SmartTicket will have these available as soon as we get 'em. After-party: The party is the after-party. Or maybe McDick's. I hear McDick's is going to be slinging Double Cheese Burgers well into the wee hours. BOSS. ***