i heard from around that baybeats was not received well this time around.

aha! i thought of letting out and shrieked, "told ya so!" but for once i rather be (a bit) politically correct.

you see, events like these will have, sooner or later, their expiry date. it's like a novelty, a fad, a statement even. i have to applaud to the organisers, but definately not to the $500-million-singapore-pools-and-taxpayers-money-organisation, for their ambition, determination, inspiration and perspiration.

logistics is a chore and a bitch to finalise, yes?

but back to the case in hand. i realised from 2 years ago, and then last year that this event has been recycling its programmes, personna as well as attitude. how so?

let me give some pointers:-

1. the players
raise up your hand on which band others have not seen? true enough there ARE some that haven't played before but using the calculations of the brain doesn't it bewildered you that somehow you may have seen 3/4 of the bands performed before with roughly the same materials? so it comes to a point to make you wonder, how different it is to attend and look at the performance during baybeats? loyalty is a case in hand, experiencing something new is another.

i figured it has become stale and unappetising. like a soiled toasted bread in the morning. i love toasted bread in the morning and spread it with wonderfully flavoured philadelphia cream cheese. mmmmmm. but then, i dont like it soiled. it feels empty, ya know.

so how do we changed this scenario? why not cut down the number of invitees / performance of these (unneccessary) bands. make it a more compact festival. 3 days is way to ambitious for a festival only 4 years old with many repetitive performances. it doesn't have to always be new materials for performance to be a pre-requisite, but heck just a new breath of air lah.

solution? cut it short from 3 days to 2. decrease the number of bands. improve the quality of performance step by step. add more buffer zone in between performances, just in case encores are being requested by the audience. (this is supposed to be a gig, not a class recital,so give more freedom lah beb)

2. the attendees
some complains were directed to the "kids" who made attendence and bringing down the repute of such festivals. to argue about this point is like an argument why the sky is blue and the grass is green. it's inevitable, kids WILL come. it IS free of charge, and yes i won't blame them to attend because it is one place wer u can cuci mata until u cannot have mata at all. adults WILL complain that they don't belong there, but what right is there for them to argue? attendees should know better that they will come for all the reasons being said out before.

adults will always demand their exclusiveness and rights beforehand at such, but please lah most of them attend too as the same reasonings as these kids also. i know if i were to come i would like to "cuci mata" , "act like a mother fucking cool indie poster boy", and at the end of the day i will ask, "music? what music?", bar one or two lah.

solution? if you do not want kids to attend, have a freaking entry charge for a 2 day festival. $20 like that. (but then due to the "overwhelming response", esplanade will definately incur charges, sooner or later. must recoup back that $500 million mah.) and to tackle the "hey-look-at-me-im-fucking-indie-cool-look-at-me-godamnit!" problem, we can activate the redundant cisco guards to pursue this issue. "WOIT! CISCO HERE! DON'T TRY TOO LOOK SO COOL YOU PUNK!" see? useful, kan?

3. the security
easy. if the management wants total security, order everyone to deposit their bags at the entrance and not allow patrons to wear clothes or anything. simple? security to the max like dat i tell u. but then mr management, i doubt those-indie-punk-emo-whatever people are bothered enough about politicks. it aint cool enough, ya noe?

baybeats will change, i hope. if not people will get tired of all the hoo hah being served with these things over and over again...

this, speaking from a person who has skipped the past 2 though.

rant over!