Sundown Festival 2013 : Celebrating Asian Music As the Sun Goes Down

We didn’t know quite what to expect when we are over at Sundown, at the open area near F1 Pit Building as it was my first time attending a music concert held right over there. But thank goodness, the rain has stopped and by 6.45pm, the crowd started to stream in. Of all the Asian pop acts tonight, I am only familiar with Yoga Lin’s (林宥嘉) music. Though I am unfamiliar with the rest of music artistes, I am still pretty excited about the concert. Who knows? Maybe I might just become a fan of one of the artistes performing tonight.

Like any other open outdoor concert, there were no chairs for us to sit put only patches of grass for us to stand. It’s actually really tiring to stand at the mosh pit for hours. It’s cram, sticky, humid and hot. After standing for about 2 hours, my legs started to ache really badly. Perhaps I should really think twice about attending outdoor concerts as I’m getting old with my ‘rickety’ bones growing weaker each day… ( Can’t believe I’m actually feeling this though I’m only in my twenties).

One of the supposedly exciting part of the concert is Asian Street Food Village that is housed within the concert grounds. I expected a wide variety of stalls selling street food of various Asian countries but I was disappointed by the limited number of stalls set up in the tent. It wasn’t a ‘village’ at all. It was more like a town with just a row of representative stalls of the various Asian countries selling quick bites.

The concept of gathering music artistes from all over Asia to perform in Singapore, against a beautiful city skyline is eventful and quite spectacular. But it would be even better if they called upon singers and bands who are more iconic and could better represent their country and culture. Say for Taiwan, we could have Ah Mei (張惠妹) and perhaps a few other more well-known regional artistes. Ahhh…but I do know that it isn’t easy to beckon these big shots to come over to perform…

Even though they weren’t any really mega stars tonight, but all the performers did a great job in rocking the stage. At least, the concert goers around me were really into the mood while listening to great music under the blanket of stars and a bright full moon ( all hidden behind the clouds).

The row of fan girls started screaming at the top of their lungs when Screw was introduced, I was like, ‘ Don’t tell me I am standing right behind a row of Screw’s super die-hard fans. I was weary that these enthusiastic fans might just knock me out with their banners, lightsticks or maybe even with their ear-piercing screams. But thank goodness, it didn’t happen. 

However, the fans were in this total trance when Screw begin to perform.The fans, mainly girls, were thrashing with their heads to the beat of the music. The atmosphere skyrocketed to another level when the members of Screw started to flail their heads, from left to right, with their hair flinging all over. And same goes to Screw’s fans who thrash their heads out to the front, while grabbing tightly onto barricades and pushing it as they rock to the music. It did shocked me to see the security guards suddenly walking forward to add resistance to their push on the barricades. But the fans were simply in their own world, flinging their hair all over the place, even right into the faces of the irritated security guards.The air around me was filled with this sweaty hair scalp smell and tiny bits of dandruff floating all about.

This Japanese visual-kei band is really something, huh? This 5-member indie band also has build an pretty extensive discography with hits which topped the Indies chart in Japan.

Their performance is quite spectacular seeing that the crowd were wowed by their music and presence but I’m just not too sure if what they have done on stage is really appropriate for the crowd as there are families with young children. If you were there at night, you will know what I mean. To some, Byo’s actions might seem offensive.

Members: Byo ( lead vocalist), Kazuki (leader, lead guitarist), Manabu (rhythm guitarist), Rui ( bassist)

I was also standing to a fan of Yoga who came all the way from Philippines. I couldn’t help but to ask her how she get to know of Yoga’s music and she said it was through a friend who introduced Yoga’s songs to her. And I guess this pretty much explains the meaning and objective behind Sundown Festival – to bridge the various Asian cultures together through good music. 

I got to know of his talent through this Taiwanese singing talent show called One Million Star(超級星光大道) where he was the winner of the first season of this talent show. Though he might be petite, his vocals is of unique quality – slightly husky but soothing and gentle.

Rico Blanco is another artiste representing the Philippines. This rock icon, Rico, shines on stage in a filipino traditional native costume. In essence, his elaborated costume has already stole the show. He’s another multi-talented artiste that his own music being appreciated by people outside of Philippines. His most recent album release, Galactik Fiestamatik, scored the number one spot on iTunes worldwide.