Fete de la Musique 2010.

Airplanes - B.O.B ft Hayley Williams

It has been a while since Fete de la Musique. The only reason to the delay of this post is obvious. So I guess that it is still unnecessary for me to go into any indulgent explanations.

Fete de la Musique is an annual music event organized to celebrate music. When I say music, I mean every genre you possibly know or may not. Keeping to the 8-year-old tradition, Malaysia becomes part of this worldwide celebration, while giving opportunities to local amatuer and professional musicians to showcase their musical talent without discrimination of background, style and experience. Plus, it is a music festival held in more than 300 countries worldwide, happening on the same day - the day of pure summer solstice

I initially signed up for a whole day shift from 8am till 10pm, not a clue about what this event has got to offer. I thought, maybe this is a golden opportunity for me to burn my way-too-much internship hours. I stepped out of the car onto the hard bitumen pavement where my canvas shoes gripped on, just to have a series of drum test noise bombard both ears. I exhaled heavily and immediately shrugged off the negative thoughts a pessimist like me can come up with then headed towards the red booth set up about a hundred meters away. I sauntered pass the Volkswagen showroom and managed to have some envious moments. Shared some light moments with Reuben and the others who came along soon while watching some of the bands stepped up to do sound tests.

The string of back to back performance which lasted till about 11pm began at 10.30 in the morning. As expected, the morning performances did not attract any crowd at all. The shoppers merely took glances at the performers on stage as they strutted by. As I was in charge of floor managing, my boss instructed me to go around explaining to people what the event was about, or even wheedle people into joining the fun out of desperation. The scorching sun was one of the pullbacks of the event, I mean, who is willing to risk standing under the hot sun just to watch some random people perform? No doubt, some of the pretty performers with pretty voice and awesome, undeniable musical talents were able to hold on to a number of shoppers for a short moment, the other average ones failed to do so.

I hung around with the UOL's first year students, Foundation, HMC, A Levels and some of BComm students under the shades at HELP's booth. Next to us was the Digi's booth (Digi was the sponsor for this event). We were busy munching on the free popcorns provided by Digi while admiring the Digi girls' pretty Converse shoes. Was fantasizing while waiting for time to pass.

Bands and individual performers went up stage and came back down. Busiest people were the backstage people. Did some surveys and found out that they have some serious stuffs going on back there. Lots of coordinating, instruments check plus phoning up performers and ensuring their attendance. Of course, I wished to help but clumsy people like me was afraid that I might screw everything up in the end, so I politely apologized for not being able to lend some help. (:

Things began to heat up when the shift changes around 3o'clock in the afternoon. Yet, the crowd wasn't enough for us to begin our work. So we continued maundering stories, one after another while cheering after every performance. A quarter of the cheerleading team Blitzers from BU4 came to perform their short yet skillful routine as well! Loving the blazing charisma and energetic movements out there. Not to forget, HengLing, for treating the girls ice-cream sundae from McD. It was surely a perfect dessert to satisfy our cravings in such hot day

As the golden sun set for the day to some twilight moments, spotlight shone to highlight the performances on stage. My friend, Clement,

who was the drummer for his band - Pop The Cherry, took the stage and rocked it, just like how the other bands did. Apparently, his drum stick flew out of his hands accidentally when he waved it but he made it so cool looking as if it was a planned thing. Good thing he brought an extra because it had happened before in his previous performance. The crowd size was gradually increasing in number and of course, there were some rare sight of some crazy audiences and lead singers of bands, shaking their heads so vigorously like their heads were detaching from their necks. Felt like they were on crack, Ecstacy or some sort. Freaky. At that time, crowd control was all about preventing these psychopaths from going over the top and crashing the stage. It wouldn't be a beautiful sight if they did.

As the night veiled over the entire area, I grew used to the loud, heavy metal musics above my average tolerant level. I imagined how my eardrums were less flexible and insensitive to sounds right above inaudible level. Yet, that did not keep me from getting all pumped up during the event. I was shouting and cheering, easily blending into the crazy crowd out there, except for the fact that the shirt I was wearing was chilly red. I actually silently hoped to lose my voice the next day, but as usual, things I wished for never come true. Oh well, that was one frivolous and weird wish anyway.