“This country is becoming one of the cultural epicentres of the world!” – Festival co-founder Danny Rogers said yesterday, as he thanked punters at the end of St Jerome’s Laneway Festival 2015. The country he was talking about was Singapore, which served as the opening date of the festival run for the fifth consecutive year, before it hits Auckland tomorrow and then makes its way to Australia where the full lineup will join the tour.
The Singapore leg of the festival has come along way from its humble beginnings, where it attracted about 3,500 punters to see a lineup that included !!!, Foals, Warpaint and many others. Much as it has done in Australia, over the course of its five years it has turned itself into Singapore’s premiere and most anticipated “indie music” event of the season, with the 2015 installment seeing the festival sell out for the first time – with 13,000 punters from across the Asian region attending the event.
Organisers said that among expats from Australia and New Zealand, and the local Singaporeans, a large number of ticket purchasers were coming in from Malaysia – with Kuala Lumpur an easy 40 minute flight away – and Indonesia.
Among the changes for this year’s event was an increase of the venue’s size and capacity, which was held for the third time at the beautiful Gardens by the Bay, overlooked by the iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel. The increase in space provided more room to the Cloud Stage – the festival’s third stage, which was introduced in 2014.
The event ran smoothly, with only a small rain burst dampening the occasion – though Samsung provided ponchos ensured everyone stayed dry. Meanwhile, the two main stages sitting side by side (as in Big Day Out or Groovin’ The Moo), ensured the music never stopped. Some foot traffic congestion caused punters to find different routes to get into Chet Faker’s performance on the lower capacity Cloud Stage, in what was Faker’s first ever appearance in the city. Some punters expressed disappointment in being able to get a good spot for his show, and finding difficulty in hearing him wherever they did end up. With the hope to increase the venue size once again in 2016, organisers will no doubt address this issue for the next event.
Closing out the night was St. Vincent, who was part of an impressively female dominated top-end of the lineup, which also featured buzz artists FKA Twigs and Banks, Courtney Barnett, Little Dragon and Angus and Julia Stone. Lykke Li, who dropped out earlier this month, was replaced by UK electronic composer Jon Hopkins, who brought his live show to Singapore for the first time, closing out the Cloud Stage at the other end of the venue.
The lineup also featured the likes of Mac DeMarco, Eagulls, Jungle and Future Islands – all of whom will continue on with the tour to Australia – as well as Malaysian band Pastel Lite, Singapore electronic duo .GIF and Enterprise, from Kuala Lumpur, who opened the main stage.
The festival moves to Auckland tomorrow for another sold out event before travelling around Australia. Stay tuned to the AU for a full review of the event, backstage interviews, photo galleries and more.
Remaining dates:
Auckland – January 26th (SOLD OUT)
Brisbane – January 31st
Sydney – February 1st
Adelaide – February 6th
Melbourne – February 7th
Fremantle (Perth) – February 8th
Limited tickets remain in some cities. For tickets and more details head to: http://www.lanewayfestival.com/
