Small-minded spoil Big Mountain's VIBEWhat's next for the Big Mountain music festival?Big Mountain Music Festival has risen to the top of all local music festivals after only three instalments. From the get-go, the music festival held in Khao Yai, Nakhon Ratchasima, has garnered a strong crowd, strong sponsorship and strong response left, right and centre.
Ferris Wheel Stage
The third BMMF, held over two days earlier this month, was a runaway success with tickets selling out and well-oiled organisation, as well as eye-popping decorations and lighting visuals.
There were changes in stage assignments and locations, and the festival has extended its warm embrace toward RS Promotion, its main rival record label, signifying good will and good signs that record labels must work closely together to survive such a hostile turn for the music industry worldwide. Other than that, it was business as usual.
The 50,000-strong crowd was in luck as temperatures kept dropping, and at some points proper overcoats were needed. The crowd's average age has also dropped. BMMF#3 was full of kids parading around in their winter best, compared with the start-up instalments where a mix of first jobbers, creative types, serious music lovers and open-minded individuals congregated to establish a joint community spirit. This year, that sentiment has somewhat gone AWOL.
Palmy
Almost taking on a tourist attraction status, BMMF#3 revellers could use a little bit of attitude fine-tuning. Instead of dispersing across the six stages and many nooks and crannies of the festival, a lot of attendees chose to stick with the main stage, the Ferris Wheel Stage, which played host to the biggest names over both nights.
No matter where in the world they are held, music festivals should be an educational experience when it comes to exposing yourself to new soundscapes, unknown bands and unchartered musical journeys. It shouldn't be only about gawking at your idols or singing along with well-worn tunes over and over again. Familiarity can sometimes be poisonous, and it was disheartening to see throngs of festival goers, after Bodyslam finished, walking back to the camp site, passing the District 9 stage without stopping to see what was going on.
It's the nature of things, especially here in Thailand, that once a particular formula is established, we usually stick with it without trying to infuse challenges, or we tend to cut out what doesn't work very fast, not wanting to give it room to breathe. BMMF this time around, to me, was a little stale with the usual antics. Granted, Thailand hardly produces enough exciting bands as it is, but still there must be better alternatives. Bodyslam in particular received so much importance that sometimes it felt like that they owned the festival, and other bands were just there to kill time or be ignored. As much as I love Bodyslam and the vocalist's hot bod, the whole charade has gotten a tad too overwrought this time around. BMMF is, after all, a multi-label, multi-band, multi-interest music festival, not a glorified Bodyslam concert. Japanese idol Makoto, of Lucifer fame, even descended on stage to introduce Bodyslam. Makoto's appearance at BMMF showed his ardent support for Bodyslam who are rumoured to start working with the Japanese star in the near future. No, no, it wasn't orchestrated by anyone.
A more experimental stage curated by SO::ON Dry Flowers and Panda Records has disappeared, but the "Mun Nai Mak" stage replaced the void with its very indie line-up. There were veterans up there, and, of course, they knew the chops, and could play to save their lives.
There were a few novelty bands, and I had fun laughing along with their gung-ho approach to music and borderline performance art. Then, there were serious indie bands who really should not have been put on stage at all. They had nothing to offer, and it was embarrassing to see more than half of this stage's line-up fall into the deepest end of suckiness.
The ever so popular dancing tree from the previous BMMF events has died, and the Ferris Wheel control booth was turned into a makeshift deejay stage when the main stage finished, and re-christened "Club Cake". It didn't quite work out compared with the previous years when it came to interested revellers.
Maybe, the crowd was so different this year that if they wanted to dance well into the morning, they would opt to shake their tail feathers at the various sponsor pubs around the festival that played exactly the same kind of outdated techno, trancey RCA beats and Lady Gaga remixes.
BMMF#4 is now open for bookings. I would definitely attend again because after all it is always well organised, and the chilly weather is nice. It's not their fault that the new generation of BMMF heads is not what it once was.
Bangkok Post
