Twenty-seven bands and musicians will stage 68 concerts in four Chinese cities at the World Music Asia Festival from Sunday to Oct 6.

The annual event is hosted by Xintiandi, a real estate brand in China, and World Music Shanghai. All the concerts will take place for free on the Xintiandi premises at seven locations in Shanghai, Wuhan in Central China's Hubei province, Foshan in South China's Guangdong province and Chongqing.

This year the festival will highlight the modern interpretation of traditional Chinese music, such as pingtan and ethnic music from Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region.

Lu Jinhua, the inheritor of the lidiao style of pingtan, a traditional story-telling art form with music listed as part of China's intangible cultural heritage, said she hoped to explore new possibilities of the ancient art form.

"I have been performing pingtan for decades and I believe the art form has lots of expressive power," she said at the press conference announcing the upcoming festival. "I hope to share my new discoveries with young audiences at the festival."

This year the festival will initiate a new event for children at the KIC Center in Shanghai, when interactive workshops and a music market will be held following the concerts.

The festival will expand its online presence with the help of new music sharing apps and vloggers. Most of the concerts will be livestreamed on multiple websites, such as bilibili.com.