The RWMF came and went one week ago, but obviously I was too knackered to write anything. Even until now. So this’ll be one hastily put together entry.
It doesn’t take a lot to make me happy on a Saturday night. I need any combination of good food, good music and good company.
With the exception of good food, I found the latter two aplenty at the music fest. Lots of people from the West and other parts of Sarawak came and flooded our humble little town over that weekend. For three days, music was shared, new friends were made, and Kuching became a real party town.
Joyce’s Monalisa Smile
JoycetheFairy, KinkyPugKevin and YC the Drama Queen flew in from KL to join in on the festivities.
My adventures began just when I was picking them up from Kuching International Airport. Knowing them, I was expecting three excited people madly jumping up and down passing through the arrival gates. But they hadn’t slept the night before so I ended up picking up 3 ZOMBIES wanting terrorise Kuching town.
Kevin’s flight to Kuching broke his aviation virginity
It was quite a scary sight.
Joyce “My blog is not famous because of Adam C” Wong and Kevin work for magazines and were here to cover the event. YC’s tagging along ‘cos she needed a break.
This year’s Rainforest World Music Festival followed pretty much the same formula as previous years’ – music from around the world by bands no one’s heard of, workshops in the afternoon and a huge concert at night, right in the middle of Sarawak’s lush rainforest.
Police sniffer dogs to detect if you have any illicit “green substances” on you. Hey, there are kids at the event ya know?
Having been to last year’s show, I thought this year’s event was much better organised with tougher crowd security and a more entertaining band lineup.
The concerts at night are the highlight of the event. That’s when they set up a huge stage in front of the grass lawn, and the audience dance and mosh to folk songs and world music as if it’s a trance rave. Quite a fascinating sight, because I’d have never expected much people to enjoy this genre of music.
There were a lot of good bands to like: the Mongolians with their throat-singing, the Madagascarians with their African beats, the Scottish with their bagpipe and rock music fusion. I particularly love it when bands from two different countries collaborate, and create a totally unique blend of music on the spot.
At the end of the the night, it’s become tough to choose which band is the most popular, but my guess is those Latin Americans should be somewhere near the top.
The Latin Americans perhaps played the hit song out of the entire music festival with a Spanish number called “Guantanamela” (whatever that means). It’s a catchy tune that made me feel like doing the salsa right then and there with a random stranger. 😛
But I shouldn’t scare people like that.
There were a couple of annoyances for me during the show. In conjunction with the Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF), was another festival going on.
The Rainforest Shirtless Men Festival (RSMF) were running in full glory. Featuring an army of sweaty grown adult men with no shirt on mindlessly screaming and bumping into other people .
I don’t mind hogsweat rowdy shirtless guys at all. I just don’t like it when kept bumping into me EVERY 5 SECONDS trying to swap sweat droplets with me. It’s disgusting. Seriously, those people should either put a shirt on or eff off.
Drums sound better when you’re higher.
With the amount of alcohol and drunken people going on, sometimes I wonder if kids should even be allowed to be there.
Still, best part of the whole festival was the company I was with.
This is Irene and YC. The two of them have so much in common it’s kinda spooky.
Best. Ten seconds. Of my life.
I thought I was in heaven.Trying very hard not to smile too wide.
IngHui, all the way from Miri, taking a photo of me taking a photo of her.
Arthur, who drove 13 hours along with IngHui from Miri to attend the event.
This guy is at it again. We were together throughout most parts of the concert, and he could just be standing there doing nothing saying nothing , QUIET AS A ROCK, and have women – HOT BEAUTIFUL WOMEN – making the first move chatting up to him. It’s insane.
Fairy Angel
The girls said it’s the aura he exudes and his mean tattoo.
Maybe I should get a full arm tatt as well. That’ll pick up chicks.
To end this lousily put together entry, here’s a video of the highlights of the Rainforest World Music Fest for those who can’t make it.
What a fun, hectic, music-filled weekend totally worth the RM60 entrance and overpriced cans of beer.
I’m taking a much needed break to Hong Kong this coming weekend. Can’t wait. 🙂