Tides Of Bad Fortune

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EDITOR'S PICK

Tides of bad fortune

By KITCHANA LERSAKVANITCHAKUL

THE NATION

With ineffective management, Samet's first music festival is less than successful

Last Saturday's love fest, "Samet in Love", held on Koh Samet off Rayong, was no different in set-up or line-up to previous music events held on the beaches of Hua Hin, Cha-Am or Pattaya. Sadly though, in terms of planning and management, the differences were significant.

First off, there had obviously been a massive breakdown in the communications between the provincial authority, the organiser, Boost Bangkok and local Saikaew Beach villagers and traders, whose incomes were affected by the event. An official in charge of stage production was heard complaining that some locals had initially obstructed the setting up of the stage.

Secondly, the music festival didn't stick to its schedule but ran two hours late. The result was that many of the artists - especially T-Bone and Joey Boy - were unhappy with the very late show time. In the press release, it was clearly stated that there would be a countdown to Valentine's Day after T-Bone's show at midnight. In reality, it took place after Two Poptorn's show, which should have taken place at 9.40pm.

And even then, it was askew, with a badly out-of-sync firework display that saw smaller firecrackers hit the sky after the larger ones. The festival finally wrapped with a show by Joey Boy and hip-hop duo Sing Nuea Suea Tai at 4am, not 2am.

Under the concept of "Love Us, Love Earth", the festival was supposed to entertain while helping to save the coral reef - a nice idea but hardly new.

The show opened with shoegazing alternative rockers Desktop Error. As the band droned on, the audience used the time to mark out areas for their seats while others joined in such activities as having their photos taken with Bangkok Airways as the backdrop.

Deep-O-Sea and Crescendo were up next before handing over the stage to one of the inevitable fire shows.

All the artists, who were asked to stick to the concept "One Love with One Beloved" brought along a guest. Crescendo featured Mint, Ben Chalatit had Sweetnuch, Pramote brought along Two Poptorn and Champ, Sqweez Animal featured Po Yokee Playboy and T-Bone appeared with comedians Thep Pho-ngam and Udom Chanchuen. Unfortunately, Win Sirivongse of Sqweez Animal had to come without bandmate Prachatip "Singha" Musigapong who hurt his eye playing football.

And while Boost Bangkok had made a big thing of how Samet's famed ebb tide made the beach wider, they had apparently forgotten about high tide. In the wee hours, the waves swooshed up and washed away plastic bags and beer bottles - making absolute nonsense of the environmental message.

Given the poor organisation, perhaps it was a good thing that the anticipated crowd of 20,000 didn't show and that the audience remained relatively small at around 5,000 souls.

-- The Nation 2010-02-17

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