Back in 2012 and 2013 I wrote about Baybeats, an alternative music festival held at the Esplanade Theatres. I wrote them because I had a great time and I wanted to share with you my experience of the festival. In 2014, I decided to go for the latest edition and just like previous years, the Baybeats Music Festival features local and regional bands performing at various locations around the Esplanade. So here you go, this is my coverage of the 2014 edition of Baybeats Music Festival.
What is Baybeats?
The Baybeats Music Festival is an alternative music festival featuring independent local and regional performers held at the Esplanade every year since its inception in 2002. It's very popular among youths and young adults but everyone is welcomed to join in the fun as well. It's totally free and the performances are held around various locations within Esplanade such as the Outdoor Theatre, The Concourse and The Powerhouse.
The Powerhouse is a special stage built for Baybeats located at an empty space beside the Marina Bay Floating Platform. There's also the Festival Village which has booths selling various band merchandise so that patrons can show their support for the performers. Baybeats was held over three days on Friday 27th June (I attended on this day), Saturday 28th June and Sunday 30th June.
Very first performance by Attention! The New Portsdown at the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre
As I was released quite late from school, I didn't actually manage to watch the very first Baybeats performance which started at around 6.30pm at the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre. However, I did manage to catch their last song from their set list while standing at the back with other standing audience members as well.
The band that performed was called Attention! The New Portsdown which was a band consisting of six members performing pop punk songs. They played radio-friendly and feet-tapping music that makes you want to dance. Since I only heard their last song, I didn't really get to experience the band that much but the last song they played was really awesome and although it lasted a while and didn't get to sit down and enjoy, it was still a great band playing great music!
Listening to Stopgap at The Powerhouse
After watching a brief performance by Attention! The New Portsdown, I walked from the Outdoor Theatre, passed by the Festival Village and headed to The Powerhouse, a stage specially made for Baybeats located at an open space beside the Marina Bay Floating Platform. The first performers who performed was called Stopgap, a five piece independent band originating rock band from Singapore.
They performed high energy rock songs that will make you jump up and down and wave your hands up. Everyone watching their performance had a great time and had a great time rocking out to their songs. Although their performance was slightly marred by the National Day Parade rehearsals and fireworks from the nearby Singapore Sports Hub, everyone still had a great time and the band rocking their socks off.
Heading Back to the Outdoor Theatre for Sphareas
After listening to Stopgap at The Powerhouse, I headed back to the Outdoor Theatre to listen to Sphareas, a local band that performs music from a wide variety of genres ranging. According to the Esplanade's website, the band Sphareas "endeavours to incorporate unconventional song writing—irregular song structures, chord tone absurdities, mythical odd time signatures—into instrumental music; one that draws the audience into a journey of self exploration and discovery". Pretty interesting description to describe the music they like to perform.
Unlike other bands, their music was purely instrumental as in there's no singing involved at all. Music isn't necessarily about the singing and how good the vocals are. Sometimes, good music can also be heard just by hearing the music without vocals. Although Sphareas was slightly different in delivering their music as compared to other bands performing during Baybeats, it was still indeed great and I could hear that they put in a lot of effort with their instrumental music that they played.
Listening to Music with (an) Atlas at the Esplanade Concourse
After watching a few performances in the outdoors at the Outdoor Theatre and The Powerhouse, it was time for me to head inside the air-conditioned Esplanade Theatre's The Concourse to watch a band called Atlas. Atlas is basically an experimental indie rock band consisting of six members performing various instruments and vocals.
Their songs were definitely unique as their songs were not the typical indie music that you usually on the radio mainly because they like to experiment with different genres according to the Esplanade's synopsis of the band. As the stage was quite small and there were quite a lot of them on stage, that didn't stop them from producing wonderful music. In fact, the audience was made up of a range of people including seniors and working adults and I could see that they had a lot of fun. Overall, their songs, although different, were definitely cool, unique and interesting.
Last Performance by Spacedays
My last performance was of this band called Spacedays. Basically, they are a five piece rock band from Singapore (most of the performances that I watched during that night were from Singapore) who claimed that they perform a special genre of music called 'psychedelic groove rock'. The songs perform really did have that psychedelic sound that they claimed which totally sounds different than other songs out there.
Similar to the performance of Attention! The New Portsdown, I only managed to catch a glimpse of them performing as I wanted to head over to the Festival Village. Despite watching them for a short period of time, I still had a great time listening to their performance and their psychedelic music.
The Baybeats Festival Village
After watching all the performances, I headed to the Festival Village just right in the middle of the Outdoor Theatre and The Powerhouse. Basically, it's like a flea market but instead of selling random items, the Festival Village booths mainly sold items and merchandise of the bands that are performing during the Baybeats festival.
There were also a couple of booths set up by sponsors of Baybeats including Yamaha, a company that sells musical instruments like the keyboard and Macbeth, a footwear company. Loads of festival-goers can be seen checking out the various merchandise that were on sale and some of them were even wearing the merchandise as well. This just goes to show that there are still people who are supporting local and regional music which is always great.
Conclusion
I had a great time during the 2014 edition of Baybeats just like in the previous years that I have attended. It's great to see a new range of local and regional acts and it's great to see that there are still plenty of people out there who support local and regional talents. Although Baybeats are mostly enjoyed by youths, there were also people of all different ages coming down to Baybeats to have a great time.
Some of them were even came straight from their workplace which really shows how popular Baybeats is. Fortunately, unlike Mosaic Music Festival (which ended its run in 2014), Baybeats is still ongoing and I still get to enjoy it for years to come. Do come down for the 2015 edition of Baybeats and I can guarantee that you'll have lots of fun. It's totally free and it's a great way to support local talent!
More Information
Baybeats 2014 Official Website: http://www.baybeats.com.sg/2014/
Frenzeelo article on Baybeats 2012: http://frenzeelo.blogspot.sg/2012/10/baybeats-music-festival-2012.html
Frenzeelo article on Baybeats 2013: http://frenzeelo.blogspot.sg/2013/08/baybeats-music-festival-2013.html