It’s a festival like no other, least of all because of the attention it garners with relatively little international or national marketing or promotion. It’s a festival in which the whole community gets involved. In Phuket Town especially, streets are always lined with legions of white-clad young and old, clutching firecrackers and joss sticks.
However, one festival not returning next year, as reported on the front page of this paper, is the Phuket Blues Rock Festival.
Although organiser Andy Andersen said that the 2012 edition was the most successful to date, he has decided that the festival will not take place next year “Because a venue cannot be found.”
The venue where the event was held earlier this year – the Laguna Resort – has said that it would be unable to host the event again this year at the specific times Mr Andersen has specified, but said that they would be able to host it in March.
This leaves the veteran festival organiser two choices – change the date or change the venue.
Sounds simple, but could there be another hurdle? People have speculated as to whether the festival, being a predominantly rock and blues affair, has the same appeal to locals and visitors it once did.
With recent DJ performances – such as the recent sets by Boy George and Paul Harris – drawing large crowds, as well as a number of locals making names for themselves, there is obviously a huge and growing market locally for electronic music.
The Phuket Electronic Music and Dance Festival and the Karon Electronic Music Festival are still very much in their infancies, but they are incredibly popular and with the comparatively low costs associated with putting them on, they look to continue in that vein. Both are held on the beaches of Patong and Karon respectively.
Perhaps, then, the answer for the Phuket Blues Rock Festival is not to cancel, but to broaden horizons.