A Perfect Pitch: We Chat With The Sunda Festival Chiefs About Breaking New Ground

Meet the dream team behind Sunda Festival (Credit: Courtesy of FuFu Creative, Ice Cream Sundays)

It’s not every day a promoter wakes up and decides to organise a camping music festival in Singapore. But once you consider the daredevils and brainiacs behind this groundbreaking project, you’ll figure that it comes as no surprise.

Conceptualised to connect the region’s music scenes with a cornucopia of live acts and DJs, the foundation of Sunda Festival was built by the originators behind FuFu Creative and Ice Cream Sundays. If that doesn’t give you enough clarity, these are respectively the ringleaders of Hong Kong’s Shi Fu Miz Festival and arguably Singapore’s most iconic outdoor parties set in distinctive locations. Put them both together, and you’re bound to catch lightning in a bottle.

Have your gotten your ticket to Sunda yet? (Credit: Kevin Fardella)

With an event this innovative and unusual, other promoters can learn a thing or two from this Sunda squad. From landing on a relatively far-flung habitat like Sarimbun Scout Camp to curating a programme that transcends music to incorporate wellness and family-friendly activities, these guys have it all figured out. And as it turns out, the idea of Sunda Festival was hatched even before the pandemic, so you bet its long-awaited fruition on 30 September is well-deserved.

The stage is set and the seeds are growing. Now listen to what the Sunda team has to say for themselves in this enlightening chit-chat.

The full regional lineup for Sunda Festival consists of live acts and DJs (Credit: Artwork by Natasha Hassan)

Hey Sunda squad. For starters, how long has the idea for Sunda Festival been brewing?

It’s a little crazy to think about, but the idea for Sunda has been brewing for over four years at this point. We had initially planned to throw it in September 2020, going as far as booking and confirming our lineup, but of course COVID-19 happened and we had to shelf the project. Until now, that is.

Talk about long-awaited! The decision to organise a camping event is fairly unprecedented in the context of the music scene. Why decide to embark on this uncharted territory in Singapore?

The fact that it’s uncharted territory is exactly why we wanted to do it. The festival experience becomes so much more immersive when you can spend all weekend on the premises – staying up late to see your favourite performer, sauntering back to your tent, and then waking up to check out the laid-back morning sets. There’s a feeling that the festival becomes your home away from home for a weekend, which is something you really can’t get in an urban stay-at-home festival. With a venue that’s perfectly suited to camping, we really wanted to give Singaporean festivalgoers this option with Sunda.

Like setting up a tent, picking the right location must’ve been crucial for the realisation of this event. How did Sarimbun Scout Camp become the prime pick?

Once Sarimbun Scout Camp came onto our radar, we knew fairly quickly that it was the venue for Sunda. It has so many things going for it – the ability to camp or stay in their pre-existing accommodations, for one. In addition, there are the beautiful natural surroundings, good infrastructure and amenities, the novelty factor, and an understanding and cooperative management team. In a city with few potential festival sites, we’re very lucky to have landed in Sarimbun.

Sunda marks another collaboration between Ice Cream Sundays and FuFu Creative. What makes the partnership between you two so special?

When the Ice Cream Sundays team met Florian from FuFu back in 2018, we hit it off immediately because of our mutual passion for great music and throwing events in unique settings. He brings a wealth of experience as one of the driving forces behind Shi Fu Miz festival in Hong Kong, in addition to his many other music-related ventures. And of course, we really click as friends, which is incredibly important in a passion-driven project like Sunda. We recognised pretty quickly that there were a lot of opportunities to collaborate and help develop the scene in Singapore, so when the idea for the festival came up, we knew that it would be an ideal project for a partnership between Ice Cream Sundays and FuFu Creative.

Scenes of Shi Fu Miz in Hong Kong (Credit: Shi Fu Miz / @remy.g)

Ice Cream Sundays recently celebrated their seventh birthday at Tanjong Pagar Distripark (Credit: Ice Cream Sundays)

The two of you definitely make a dream team. How have you applied your individual experiences in organising events to this mutual endeavour?

The ICS team has had a lot of experience organising parties in different locations around Singapore for the past seven years, and Daniel through his past work with Lopelab on Urban Ventures and the Singapore Urban Design Festival. As a result, we feel we have a good knowledge of the market. Having said that, a project like this has a lot more moving parts, and that’s why Florian’s involvement, having organised festivals and events of a similar nature and scale, is a crucial piece of the jigsaw. We’ve also developed a strong network of creatives and technical folks who have been supporting us along the way to ensure that we are covering as many of our blind spots as we can to deliver an experience that goes beyond just the music.

Did y’all take inspiration from other music events in the world? And if so, which ones?

Definitely! Of course, given Florian’s previous experience, Shi Fu Miz in Hong Kong is a major source of inspiration for us, particularly regarding the format of three stages and the mix of local, regional and international artists. They have managed to create a truly unique experience by allowing people to escape from the city, on an island no less. We also look up to Wonderfruit as one of the best examples in Southeast Asia of how to execute an incredible multi-day music festival while showcasing a wide breadth of regional talent and musical styles. We’re also really inspired by more intimate festivals like Hopkins Creek and Inner Varnika in Naarm (Melbourne) which have such killer lineups every year while putting their local artists on the same stage as their international bookings. Finally, a truly aspirational festival would be Rainbow Disco Club – it’s just a perfect vibe, exceptional quality all around.

Sunda is more than a music event but a family-friendly affair for all ages. How are you building this format and shifting away from the perception that music festivals are just for the ‘raver’?

The reality is that people love to experience festivals in different ways. There’s definitely a strong demand for dancefloor-oriented events featuring primarily house and techno, but there’s also a relatively underserviced segment of the market that just wants to enjoy being away from the city and listen to great music, perhaps even with their kids. We want Sunda Festival to cater to all kinds of people, so you can experience it whichever way you prefer. To complement the dancing and music, we’re curating a lineup of side-programming and activities focused on wellness, recovery, panel discussions, and even activities specifically for children.

Can you tell us more about the vision behind Sunda’s lineup? How was this roster of regional live and electronic acts selected?

The goal in putting the lineup together was to showcase the diversity present in our wider regional scene. We want Sunda to be a breeding ground for connections within the regional music and creative scenes, so we hope to ignite new conversations and relationships between our local and regional artists.

We’ve decided to feature a diverse selection of artists from the Asia-Pacific region, mixing young emergent talents, established underground legends, and regional rising stars, while showcasing a variety of styles from ambient and live jazz through to dance genres like acid house, breakbeat, and techno. The lineup has been curated to achieve an interesting and emotional musical journey, with a vibe that evolves from day to night, from world music and eclectic grooves to more club-inspired sounds. We’ll have multiple dance floors and a stage dedicated to live acts and bands, so there’s something for everyone.

And to end off, the concept of Sunda stems from the idea of Sunda being the tectonic plate that connects Southeast Asia with the mainland. Is this the ultimate goal of Sunda, and if so, why is it so important for the Asian music scene as a whole?

That is definitely the ultimate goal for the festival, and it’s the reason we chose “Sunda” as its name. It’s important for a few reasons.

First of all, we strongly believe that promoters and festival organisers shouldn’t have to look too far to find amazing performers, especially in a region as talent-rich as Southeast Asia, and more broadly, Asia-Pacific. We noticed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, local audiences seemed to have developed a newfound appreciation for artists closer to home, and this really resonated with us. It’s also why we chose the tagline “it’s nice out here”. On top of it being a catchy slogan, it calls to mind how much creative potential we have in this part of the world. There are so many amazing regional acts that we feel local audiences are just waiting to discover.

Secondly, we see Sunda as being a meeting point for the various regional creative scenes to come together. This exists in many countries, but we never really had a festival in Singapore that served this purpose. There’s a real strength that comes from close relationships between scenes – whether that’s through cross-border collaborations, mutual bookings, or working together to bear the travel expenses of international artists.

Sunda Festival, 30 Sep - 1 Oct 2023, Sarimbun Scout Camp, 70 Jalan Bahtera, Singapore 719921. Visit its ticketing website or Instagram page for more information on tickets, accommodation and lineup. Life In Arpeggio is proud to be an official media partner of Sunda Festival.