One of the year's most anticipated events in the live music calendar is finally here. Maho Rasop Music Festival holds its inaugural celebration of all things beautiful and noisy in the heart of Bangkok tomorrow. The event features an adventurous line-up, with top international and local acts including The Vaccines, Slowdive, Washed Out, Oddisee, Prep, Miami Horror, Temp., Hariguem Zaboy, Solitude Is Bliss and many more from midday till midnight at Live Park Rama 9.
Meaning "big-scale fun fair" in Thai, Maho Rasop is a joint effort from three of Bangkok's best-known indie music promoters -- Have You Heard?, Fungjai and Scene Seen Space. It is one of the kingdom's first full-scale international music festivals -- Thailand's answer to the likes of St. Jerome's Laneway Festival in Australia and Singapore, Clockenflap in Hong Kong and Good Vibes Festival in Malaysia.
"We kept hearing people ask when we were going to have our own international music festival, like in neighbouring countries," said festival co-director and Fungjai CEO Sarun Pinyarat. "In the past few years, we've noticed more and more people flying abroad to see concerts and festivals. So we thought, why waste money on the plane tickets when we can bring the music festival experience here?"
Fungjai's expertise lies in the local indie scene, while Have You Heard? specialise in importing acts from the West and Scene Seen Space, bands from the East. Together, they aim to bring something fresh to a new generation of Thai concertgoers.
Festival co-director and co-founder of Have You Heard? Pimporn Metchanun says the key to a good festival is diversity.
"Thais are more used to going to stand-alone concerts," she said. "People hesitate to spend thousands of baht on one big show with only one or two bands that they know. We hope Maho Rasop helps them realise that a music festival isn't just a place to see your favourite bands. It's also an opportunity to make new musical discoveries and have new life experiences."
Maho Rasop Festival takes place in the large outdoor area of Live Park Rama 9 and expects crowds of up to 10,000. Starting at noon, the festival will deliver a total of 19 performances from a range of exciting acts playing pop, indie, rock, R&B, hip-hop, K-pop and more across its three main stages -- Maho-Ran, Khao-Hom and Serng Swing.
"We handpicked some of the bands and took votes from music fans over the past year," said Pimporn. "After long discussions and meetings, we finally ended up with these 19 names. It's not a genre-specific event. I figured we would give people a sample of the exciting range of talent that's out there at the moment."
Headlining the event is London-based pop-punk new-wave outfit The Vaccines. These indie darlings won the NME Award for Best New Band in 2012 and their music has drawn comparisons to The Ramones and The Jesus And Mary Chain.
"The Vaccines are unbridled, accessible, festival fun. They're such an ideal band in terms of their onstage energy and singalong anthems. They'll be bringing an infectious, life-affirming set," Sarun said.
American chillwave artist Washed Out.
Legendary English indie rockers Slowdive will be playing Thailand for the first time at Maho Rasop Festival. Formed in Reading in 1989, Slowdive are one of the most celebrated acts in the shoegaze genre, famous for their dreamy sound and woozy melodies. Their albums Just For A Day (1991) and Souvlaki (1993) are often cited as among the best of the 1990s. Their comeback album, last year's self-titled effort, also received glowing reviews, appearing on many year-end lists such as Pitchfork's 50 Best Albums of 2017.
Another highlight of the festival is Washed Out, the bedroom synth-pop project of American artist Ernest Weatherly Greene Jr, who rose to prominence in 2011 with the his album Within And Without. His music is an innovative blend of indie, pop and electronica and he has been called a pioneer of chillwave. Washed Out will be performing tunes from his latest album Mister Mellow.
When asked which lesser-known acts he would recommend to festivalgoers, Sarun said: "The artists on the bill are all amazing. But if I were to pick out a few, they'd be American rapper Oddisee, Taiwanese math-rockers Elephant Gym, Chinese instrumental post-rock combo Wang Wen, Japanese power pop group Lucie, Too and the two R&B acts from South Korea -- Dean and Rad Museum."
The festival also has plenty more to offer besides music. Across the grounds, festivalgoers can explore multimedia installations created by local architectural designer team Supermachine. Bring an appetite to enjoy the tasty dishes available at the many food trucks. And why not indulge yourself with an alcoholic beverage or two. There's draft beer, spirits and signature cocktails sponsored by Tawandang German Brewery Bangkok.
The organisers hope that Maho Rasop can continue and develop into a proper annual international music festival, expanding the festival landscape in the country and even becoming a new tourism driver for the Thai economy.
"If you look at the bigger scale festivals like South by Southwest in the US or Primavera Sound in Spain, they have a big impact on the local economy," says Sarun. "We believe that this is a possible market segment, drawing more travellers to the country, generating income and improving Bangkok's image musically."
Tickets to the festival are 4,990 baht, available from Ticketmelon.com.
