Along came a spider

THE SPECTACULAR gigantic spider returns to Thailand for a second year next month as “Gravity Thailand 2016 Arcadia – the Bangkok Takeover” gets set to repeat its massive success with EDM disciples in the City of Angels.

This time too, the event promises to be more powerful and draw an even bigger crowd to its new and more central location in the heart of Bangkok.

 “We’re going to take over Lumpini,” says Chalermchai Mahagitsiri, chief executive of Four One One Entertainment, during the press conference at Quartier CineArt.

“It’s an EDM party that’s guaranteed to thrill. The 360-degree Spider stage is built to hold all the production equipment imported from England and can shoot fireballs 50-metres into the sky. It’s constructed from recycled materials so it’s environmentally friendly too. Arcadia is among the top 10 music festivals in the world.”

The three-legged alien-like spider measuring 15 metres high and 70 metres wide and weighing in at a hefty 50 tonnes is a unique festival stage for creating DJs’ and Arcadia’s own live theatrical shows. It currently features three hydraulic cranes that can fire jets of CO2 10 metres high, nine flame cannons to shoot the fireballs and six RGB lasers running on a Pangolin control system. All the different disciplines have their own operating systems and they are synched to the music using time-code controls. The spider's soundtrack comes courtesy of a hefty 230kW Funktion One 360-degree sound system, complete with a 50-metre sound field, all linked to a mixer and two Pioneer CDJs. It debuted at Glastonbury Festival in 2010 and its debut Thailand appearance last year was a first for Asia.

“We decided last year to make Gravity Thailand an annual music event. We want it to be different from other dance music festivals in Thailand or Asia. It’s of an international standard and great in terms of stage production. Arcadia was also the team behind the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics in the UK,” says Yod Sukwiwat, managing director of boutique multimedia entertainment company Momentum.

“The production team will spend a full week setting up the spider stage, so I would like everybody to be confident about its international standards. The fireballs will be shot higher this year following complaints from people living around Suan Siam last year, and there’ll be many more lasers and effects.”

But unlike last year, certain limits are being placed on participation, among them the requirement to be aged 18 just to get in and 20 to be allowed to consume alcohol.

“In England, Arcadia is positioned as a music festival for family and its spider stage continues to be developed every year. Arcadia at Glastonbury Festival, which has a crowd capacity of 100,000, consisted of other smaller stages such as the Car Stage, which ran around the area and the Robot Stage. In the future, we would also like to import other smaller stages. We’d love to make it a family event but the government forbids the consumption of alcohol by people younger than 20,” he says.

“Our aim is to put Gravity Thailand on the map as a music festival that takes place every January. We would like it to become greater and greater and each time offer a new experience. Actually, Arcadia has the same vision as ours. In March, Arcadia will take part in Miami’s Ultra Music Festival, considered the world's premier electronic music festival.

The second edition of the EDM extravaganza is being headlined by Kaskade, an American DJ and record producer who was voted “Best DJ” by DJ Times magazine in 2011 and is among the highest paid DJs in the world, earning US$17 million a year. Also manning the decks is DVBBS, a Canadian electronic duo composed of brothers Chris and Alex Andre who are best known for their international hit “Tsunami”.

Others include Zomboy, an English electronic music producer and DJ, Must Die!, a Houston-born Berlin-based dubstep, electro house and drum and bass producer, as well as BL3ND from Los Angeles.

Festival goers can also visit Junk City, which turns waste into a city of art, Chang Zone featuring several fun games, Parallax Club by Mercedes Benz, and the food trucks at Food Park.

 

MUSIC IN THE PARK

“Gravity Thailand 2016 Arcadia – the Bangkok Takeover” will take place at Lumpini Square (formerly Suanlum Night Bazaar) on Rama IV Road on January 23 from 6pm to midnight.

Tickets are Bt5,000 (VIP) and Bt2,500. They’re on sale at Thai Ticket Major counters, by calling (02) 262 3456 and online at www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.

 Follow the movement at Facebook.com/GravityThailand. Facebook.com/fouroneoneent and Twitter @411ent.