Southeast Asia's leading alternative music festival, Baybeats 24 – 26 Jun 2016, is your best bet to get your heart thumping while watching prominent Singapore and international acts. Renowned for its variety, the annual three-day festival showcases a large array of genres, from folk, pop, metal, post-rock, emo, punk, electro and everything in between. Located at Esplanade -Theatres on the Bay, the event is 100 percent free and non-ticketed.
The way the festival is able to be free-ticketed is that it serves as a platform for local bands to make a name for themselves. However, the event's focus on fostering home grown talent goes beyond music-making, as it also gathers the best of local talent in other creative fields such as music journalism, gig photography, video arts, among others.
For any local band who wants a shot in the music business, the Baybeats team is always on the lookout for good music bands and fresh sounds for “the next round of music mayhem”. Therefore, local bands can send them their material and they promise to go through every CD. Accordingly, this is a guarantee that the team will not rest until they have the best possible line-up for each festival.
With a festival village that brings together local indie crafters and entrepreneurs, the festival also celebrates the music-loving lifestyle.
The three main performing stages include the Baybeats Arena (Outdoor Theatre), Powerhouse Stage (The Edge) and the Chillout Stage (Concourse). There is also a series of magazine-style interview sessions at the Observation Deck (Library@Esplanade).
The performances are known for being an explosion of adrenaline for festival-goers. From home grown indie to the alternative music scene, the sounds are electric. In 2014, singer-songwriter Jaime Wong drove the audience into a state of ecstasy with his tender yet bluesy showcase of original tunes in a laidback unplugged set.
As well, psychedelic-rock quintet Spacedays at the Arena, or Outdoor Stage, rocked the festival with a multi-faceted, out-of-orbit set that was at times trippy, groovy and soulful. And a hardcore band Straight Forward played a heartrending setset at the Powerhouse stage .
The newcomers from the festival's Budding Bands programme also gave legendary performances. While post-rockers Sphaeras enchanted the audience with complex song structures, the pop-punkers Attention! The New Portsdown made the audience jump to the beat of their sassy tunes. More info at esplanade.com