Music festivals are one of my favorite things in the world. Seriously. You’ve got live bands playing amazing music, festival food, good people, good vibes, the freedom of just letting go and enjoying the moment… why can’t we all live life like an endless music festival? So music festivals are few and far between here in Thailand and usually they’re indoors at the big convention center making the overall festival feel sectioned off and not particularly freeing… but coming this December 19th-21st is WONDERFRUIT FESTIVAL just outside Bangkok in Chonburi. I sat down with musician, artist, coordinator, hippie, party animal, & overall rad human being, Montonn Jira to get the scoops on what WONDERFRUIT FESTIVAL is all about.
What exactly is WONDERFRUIT FESTIVAL?
It’s a little difficult to describe. Seeing as there’s so much content for this event that isn’t related to any one art in particular, we’ve come up with the term “lifestyle festival”.
I’d say it’s a gathering of multiple artists with the common goal of building awareness for sustainability. We’re bringing together music, arts, food, fashion, health and wellbeing, education, sports, and camping all rolled
into one wild weekend.
How did the idea come about?
The idea for Wonderfruit has been brewing for quite a few years now. We had wanted to launch our social enterprise with an Eco-style festival and had gone through various attempts at trying to put such an event into place. Not until earlier this year, when we reached out to Secret Productions, did it actually all start coming together. We had never envisioned that the festival we were planning was going to morph into such a full scale event, but we’re extremely excited about what’s happening and we hope we’re able to engage like minded festival goers to join us in our journey.
What activities will take place?
The scope of the activities would be a bit too long to list, but let me give you just a few random things that we have lined up. We have photography workshops by the RMA institute, Equine Therapy sessions by the Horseshoe Point, Aerial acrobats, performance art by B Floor, a banquet by Michelin Star chef David Thompson, Architecture and Stage design by Shrine On, a special performance by Francesca Lombardo with the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, DJ sets by Seth Troxler, Jamie Jones, and not to mention one of the most interesting music lineups South East Asia has ever seen.
Who is expected to perform?
Aside from the performers I’ve already listed, on the music front we have Little Dragon, De La Soul, Woodkid, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Jose Gonzalez, Nick Mulvey, Andrew Ashong, The Gaslamp Killer, Hugo, T Bone, 25 Hours, the Earth Harp.. and much much more.
What are you hoping people will take away from the experience?
As festival culture is still new to Thailand, we do hope to introduce a new kind of experience for the local festival goers, and to also provide an interesting option to our neighbors here in South East Asia. Being one of the first festivals in the area to focus mainly on concepts of sustainability we feel that aside from just growing as a festival we want to demonstrate our ethos and spread awareness to all in attendance and to neighboring communities as well. We really believe that social responsibility can be a fun endeavor, and this festival aims to bring that experience to life. By year 5, our goal is to really minimize our footprint while expanding our attendance numbers.
Why do you think Thailand needs an event like WONDERFRUIT?
I’m not sure we’ve actually tailored this event to Thailand specifically. The only reason it’s happening here is because we live here and are trying to create a festival that we would want to go to.
That being said, judging by the schedule of festivals this year, Festival culture is definitely booming here in Thailand. So, getting into the game early while offering something a little different will hopefully attract a strong crowd and again give the festival fan options in choosing which type of festival they would want to go to and what causes they would want to support.
Are you aiming to make WONDERFRUIT an annual festival?
Yes, Wonderfruit is definitely an ongoing project for us. We’ve had to save some things for year 2 and year 3 as we weren’t able to fit everything in on our first year, we hope to have the festival grow along with us and for us to be able to implement more fun things as our audience grows.
So there you have it. Pack up your festival gear and get ready for three amazing days of music, art, food, and fun this December.
You can find out more about WONDERFRUIT FESTIVAL & purchase your tickets at www.WonderfruitFestival.com
