Friendly and fun at Fat

Last Saturday’s Krathing Daeng Fat Fest Bangkok, held at Lakeside Muang Thong Thani, was the first of three events being held over the next few weeks, with the second chapter taking place today in Chiang Mai and the final fest in Khon Kaen on March 10. Yet while fun, this eleventh edition of the Fat Fest failed to live up to expectations, drawing a smallish crowd as well as fewer booths from both music and movie labels and even indie artists.

One of the reasons is that this usually popular festival was held over from last November, another victim of the great flood. A second was that it coincided with a Premier League game between Manchester United and Liverpool.

This year’s gimmick was the police statue dubbed “Ja Choey” – miniatures of the versions seen as several intersections around town – and members of the audience had great fun painting the plaster dolls. Other best-sellers were masks of actor Kung Sivilai and comedian Thep Pho-ngarm, which were priced at Bt30.

The five stages were named after the five digits of the hand – “pong” (thumb), “chee” (index finger), “klang” (middle finger), “nang” (ring finger) and “koi” (little finger). It made getting around easy – all you had to do was stand with your back to the entrance and stretch out your left hand.

More than 500 popular and indie artists played short sets, among them Lula, Armchair, Lipta, Apartment Khunpa, The Richman Toys, Sqweez Animal, Scrubb, 25 Hours, Friday, Mild, Stamp, Slur, T-Bone, Thaitanium, Slot Machine, Tattoo Colour, Dome Pakorn Lump featuring Nong Nammon, Art Floor, Penguin Villa, Jui Juis, Better Weather, The Bottom Blues, POP, Room 39, Singular, La-ongfong, Singto Numchok, Augus, Ebola and Lemon Soup. Some artists took time out to sell their own products and sign autographs.