i just had a best weekender at worldwide festival. that's what today's event was called, and WHAT a way to round it up. just as i expected, Fort Canning is an EXCELLENT location for anything festival-related. this is the closest i';m getting to WOMAD for a while more, so i'll take it tyvm. first act we caught was wicked aura batucada who're ALWAYS ALWAYS excellent. nothing less than that. totally got the crowd going..everything from samba to bhangra. you could SEE the crowd enjoying themselves and thank GOD so many people were dancing (unlike the fiasco that was WWF at odeon towers. or at least what i caught of it, but that's another story). So that was at the Best Outdoors stage (which is the same stage whenever there're rock gigs at fort canning). behind that stage though was the red bull Energy Tent (at this point of time, i'd just like to say that red bull SURE gives you wings. that is possibly the only reason why i'm still alive churning this out ). much smaller area to work with but the DJ's spinning there were KILLA and the crowd was nothing short of high on music. diplo was late, so he switched up the slot with Aldrin whom i thought was filler, but in actual fact turned out to be Quite killer, if i say so myself! never heard of him, but DAMN he knows what to play. before him though, this FKIN ACE mc, The Arabyrd from malaysia of all places, TORE IT UP. imho she models herself after M.I.A. -the way she moves, the way she slurs, the way she dresses goddamit. she was reallly good. but i need me some Maya Arulpragasam herself fanks. gilles was at that set! standing at the side, bopping along. bopping is such a gh3y word. i SO recognised him. but he ran off before i could run after him for a pic. DAMN.
then we took a break soaking in mellow latin beats (yet another switched up slot cos the headliners weren't ready or summat). then we went back to check and see whether Diplo had come and THEN the party started.
this is as about close as i get to M.I.A (dey, this fellow used to date her k). he kept using the intro of Bingo as transitions so i was kept thinking he was gonna play Bingo but he didn't. he DID play Bamboo Banga (road runna, road runnaaaa!), bucky done gun (london/new york/kingston quieten down i need to make a sound!) and Paper Planes ( i SO did the shooting action during the chorus ok :P! ). it was EXHILARATING to sing along and uh, bbust moves ;)
other notable mentions in his set include bloc party's helicopter, Justice vs Simian's Never Be Alone, Gossip's standing in the way of control, T.I.'s What You Know, MOP & busta rhyme's Ante Up and at one point of time, smells like teen spirit :D and of course his INSANE remix of daftpunk's harder better faster stronger (aka Work Is Never Over) and his very own Diplo Riddim (have you heard the newsflashh/ what's my name ya'll), some santogoooold, peter bjorn and The Prodigy. fk yeah. at LEAST 2 hours worth of pure magic and mayhem. it felt SO GOOD.
and guess what? steve aoki came on stage. *points and gawks* he didn't spin lah, he just hung out. but DAMN it was HIM.
this is the money shot right here.
diplo and aoki.
everytime he spun an MIA track, i shouted out to my couz(in) of sri lankan origin to notify her haha. dis is M.I.A- REPREZNT! went with the couz, and her mates, who're insanely cool people (bigup max and dora!). speaking of couzins, met my other couz there too. he was the only person i knew of other than myself who listened to radio 1 and gilles peterson back in the day (meaning a few years ago :P). he totally got on my case for being such a desi fangirl and listening to bobby & nihal :P and now look, both of us were at GP's WWF, in Singapore of all places. i SWEAR we are DAMN fortunate to have gilles pick xinjiapo as a location. but i think revelers were expecting something womad-esque. uh, no people. gilles and the music he brought together at WWF is in a different league.
diplo was my highlight of the entire festival, hands down. he truly is "cooler than the other side of your pillow"
big up big up!
after that i didn't quite know what to do with myself. took in bits of Kruder & Dorfmeister, but just wasn't paying attention you know? pretty much all i could think of was I NEED MORE DIPLO
the Best Outdoors stage.
all i remember doing was texting mui importante people, being rather crude in the process ("steve fkin aoki') and calling kenneth and moving away to a grassy patch, collapsing on the floor to take the call and being all tripped out and stumbling back to the sarong where we were camped on fort canning hill and soaking in stereotyp and cut chemist and at one point of time, having a "flashing lights" moment at the M.A.N.D.Y set- psykedelic.
fantastic visuals. at one point of time there was a scene from a oldie tamil movie dance scene spliced into the mix LOL.
this was taken when Gilles came on to spin (his setlist was similar to that on friday though..well what i heard of it anyways). he had all the other headliners up on stage with him. they were feeding off each other. it was ELECTRIC.
and now my brain is short circuiting so i'll just move on to 2 more pics and continue this tmr.
on the way back to the energy tent with my couz, saw steve (walking with fi-ona xie, WTF) and i ran up to him, tapped him on the arm, asked for a picture and he voila. his hair is so fine. haha, and he smelt nice. ok enough.
cobain tshirt!
vee-eye-p wristbands from the 3 days which match with my quilt cover lol.
loved it loved it loved it. Best Weekender cannot be encapsulated in any words other than fkin awesome.
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