Brit rockers Stereophonics: Courtesy of Java Rockin’Land

After years of languishing without a decent rock festival, Jakarta can now once again steal the spotlight for having what has been billed as the biggest rock festival in the region — the Java Rockin’Land.

More than a decade after rock festival of repute Jakarta Pop Alternative Festival in 1996 when Sonic Youth, Beastie Boys and Foo Fighters appeared at the music fest, music fans in Jakarta seemed to be entering the dark ages with no credible performers in the city, while even some of Southeast Asia’s cities with no music scene to speak of could play host to a decent festival.

In December 2008, Siem Reap, a tourist city in Cambodia hosted an MTV concert with glam rockers Placebo as its masthead. Every year, Singapore, our neighboring city state has the annual rock festival Singfest. Thailand has the Bangkok 100 Rock Festival, which boasted Franz Ferdinand and Oasis in 2006. In 2009, MTV Network picked Kuala Lumpur to serve as a host for the MTV World Stage Festival with performances from Kasabian and the All-American Rejects.

Following the late 1990s financial crisis, political instability and a string of terrorist attacks that rocked the country, performers would certainly have had second thoughts about performing here, especially in an open air festival.

Overseas agents could also be forgiven for being skeptical about turnout in a rock festival, after learning that the country’s two biggest cultural exports are dangdut and traditional Javanese or Balinese music or Gamelan.

But as the Jakarta Pop Alternative Festival, the mid 1980s Metallica show and a Deep Purple gig in the early 1970s, there is indeed a huge base of support for rock music. And as indicated by the steady stream of quality recordings released by indie bands in Jakarta, we now have a thriving rock scene in the capital.

No one wanted to take stock of the thriving music scene until Java Festival Production—the brain behind Java Jazz Festival and Soul Nation Festival—cooked up the idea of staging a large-scale rock festival in the city, Java Rockin’Land.

And without doubt, by staging what it billed as the biggest rock festival in Southeast Asia, Java Festival Production aims to put Jakarta on the world map of rock festivals.

In the second installment of Java Rockin’Land, slated between Oct. 8 and Oct. 10, the promoter is set to erect 10 stages at the Carnaval Beach in Ancol, North Jakarta. More than 45,000 people attended the festival last year with rock veteran Mr. Big, faux-grunge outfit Third Eye Blind and soft-rockers Vertical Horizon performing as headliners.

For this year’s festival Java Festival Productions aims for a bigger rave by putting out big names in rock as headliners ranging from grunge veterans the Smashing Pumpkins, emo outfit Dashboard Confessional, dance rock purveyors Data Rock and Mutemath, to garage rock revivalist the Vines and Wolfmother. In total there will be 14 international performers and more than 100 local acts.  

“You have to agree with me that this is the kind of festival that we have been waiting for,” said Ekky Puradiredja, the festival’s program director.

Recently, some independent promoters in Jakarta have done a laudable job in bringing independent acts like Belle & Sebastian, Phoenix, Cut Copy, and the Rapture. Next month Vampire Weekend, Temper Trap and Tokyo Police Club, bands whose recorded works are not even released here, will turn up to do performances attended probably only by a small number of hipster kids.

But it takes more than courage to stage a major scale music festival, to be willing to take the risk that comes from holding a three-day music festival. Java Festival Production certainly has the business savvy and tons of experience from staging Java Jazz Festival with a line-up that includes James Brown, Earth, Wind & Fire and Jason Mraz.

“I think we’re just lucky. We have a good partner and a good production team. And the most important thing is we’re trying to be consistent here, there’s no point of having a festival without consistency. In its second years, our major concern is building trust with people,” said Ekky.

And by staging a major rock festival, Java Festival Production had tried to cater to the taste of music fans in the country and make compromises.

“The idea is to have a balanced rock festival. People can have different ideas about rock music. Our team works hard to put any genres in the final program, so you will have metal bands, alternative bands, and other rock bands,” Ekky said.

It is especially hard for Java Festival Production to come up with a more impressive line-up for this year’s festival, considering the fact that most international acts have concluded their summer schedules and it would be costly to ask them to perform outside of their Asian schedules.

Java team failed to get Weezer for this year’s festival because the alternative band already was already done with their Asian tour. The band was also asking too much. “We have talked a lot to their agent. The band even had asked about technical things such as the venue, transportation and what the crowd looks here. But the final word was no. I think they need to concentrate on their new album first,” Ekky said.

Weezer recently released their latest album Hurley and it is likely that they did not want to have Asia as the first place to promote their album.

Java Festival Production originally aimed for early August as the most perfect time for the festival, but as the Muslims observed fasting during that period they had to push back the date until early October.

“The ideal time is June or July and next year we will do things during that period,” Ekky said.

With local bands, Java Festival apparently still has to learn the ropes. “We all learn new things like some of local bands applied to us but it turned out that they were not serious about it. They are not being professional. We want to teach them lessons about dealing with festivals. Don’t get me wrong, we learn a lot too since it’s not our comfort zone to be honest,” Ekky said.

As to what type of local performers Java Festival would include in the festival line-up, Ekky said that it would always throw its support behind indie bands like The S.I.G.I.T, Burgerkill, Superman is Dead, Koil, Seringai, and Rocket Rockers.

Java Festival has also striven to create an authentic rock festival atmosphere including by renting more than 300 tents for fans who want to camp at the festival site.

Music fans have been enthusiastic about the three-day festival Marsha Suryawinata, a radio announcer said that she can now be proud that Jakarta finally has a rock festival and that it is going in the right direction. “I have been imagining about a rock festival like Woodstock and I’m not the only one who’s dreaming about this.

“This year’s lineup shows that Java Rockin’ Land is going in the right direction,” she said.

Popular

Kadin urges stability after Constitutional Court ruling

Jokowi says transition to new government to begi

BCA loan disbursement surges 17.1 percent yoy in first quarter