Before the year’s biggest indie music festival kicked off, there was already trouble in paradise. The new rule that disallowed re-entry into the festival warranted some nasty comments on its event page, with some threatening to boycott the festival altogether, and some saying it will be their last this year. And then tragedy struck again — it was announced that shoegazey lads DIIV became yet another act to pull out at the last minute (due to “family emergencies”). Woe.

But drifting around at Gardens By The Bay on a Saturday afternoon to the wicked-chill vibes of jazz-fusion bassist extraordinaire Thundercat, it looked like lil’ ol’ Laneway seems to be doing just fine and dandy. Here’re some thoughts that we’ve penned down during our 6th outing in the country’s premier indie music festival.

The times, they are a-changing

’Twas the same old festival, with the inevitable barrage of tie-dye, flower crowns, sideboobs, and short shorts but with the new (and thoroughly welcomed) rule that you can pay for your food and drinks with cash and credit cards (good riddance coupons!), there was a more relaxed mood to the event. Queues were faster, people were enjoying the food options available (bless you Lechon store), and everyone seemed to super-chill throughout the day. This was super evident in the 50-50 ratio of people watching the band while on a mat on the fields, and those who were actually standing up.

What’s with all the younglings?

It could be just us old fogeys, but there seemed to be a lot more kids roaming around The Meadow this year giggling in annoying youthful mirth and snapping a year’s worth of selfies each. Then we figured out why so many fluorescent adolescents were on the lawn — The 1975 and Chvrches. As the two semi-mainstream acts that proved to be a major hit among the junior hipsters, their shows had bigger turnouts and higher-pitched squeals than most of the other stages. What a waste paying the full ticket price solely to catch them without giving a chance to explore other artists.

Different flowers make a bouquet

It took a while for Laneway Festival Singapore to warm up to other genres other than the usual indie/synth rock fares since it started in 2011, but lately they’ve allowed other varied chords to filter through. More electronic acts started emerging with the launch of the Cloud Stage, and this year’s outing permitted even more eclectic tunes into the fray. There’s the jazz/R&B stylings of Thundercat and The Internet; there’s the endearing disco sounds of Shamir; there’s the slick rhymes of rapper Mean and MC Kane; there’s the noise-driven ferocity of Metz.

Sick skills bruh

While we’re on the topic of diversity, ain’t it grand that this year’s Laneway features some absurdly technical prowess? Fresh gusts of air from the conventional standards came in the form of Thundercat, Battles and Hong Kong’s GDJYB — all of whom wasted no time in showing off their instrumental mastery. Indulgent, extensive and full of swagger? Yes, yes, and yes — and more please. We feel really bad for Battles though; such a shame their stunning five-song intro was disrupted by tech issues.

Safety not guaranteed

While the hypnotic dream pop tunes of Beach House took everyone to the upper echelons of the beyond, Metz (who played during the same timing) was a complete antithesis to the usual Laneway serenity. Fuckin’ hell, were they a blast to experience. Wrecking apart the Cloud Stage with distorted, fuzzy-laden riffs, raspy yellings and non-stop vigour, the crowd erupted into a shroud of punches, kicks and all-round bodyslams.

It was par for the course for any noise-punk show, but unfortunately casualties were borne during the fracas — two of our female companions had to get medical attention over serious bruises and cuts when they were kicked to the ground. Moshpits rarely break out at Laneway (Japandroids’ moshpit of love was one of our favorites), but this one proved to be one of the most destructive. Lethal assholes aside, Metz were fucking sick.

Trash Talk

Imagine this scene: Laneway draws to a close as Flume plays a lazy-ass set with nice lights. A couple begins ravishing each other in the middle of the fields. There’s some butt grabbing, and boob groping, and then hands where you can’t see them. They twirl in ecstasy as people shout “GET A ROOM”. They come to a stop because the guy stomped on some garbage. The camera pans out — the whole field is filled with garbage. A lot more than last year’s.

All this is true. Damn, we’ve really got to be more responsible about the crap we leave behind. Flume needs to get his act together too, for his rubbish set.

#SupportLocal, #BelieveLocal

For a major music festival held in Singapore, Laneway has been bothered for years to embed a roster of local talents into the lineup, and 2016 is certainly a big year for homegrown music. Sporting seven local names is a wonderful achievement, and the audience responded accordingly by turning out in droves to see folks like Cashew Chemists, Fauxe and Intriguant hold their own against international names. And held their own they did, each of ’em proving that they really do deserve a spot in the massive intercontinental festival. Couldn’t be prouder to have them as friends.

Discovery Channel

The thing about music festivals — do reviews matter? We enter with a mind made up on who to see, and then somewhere along the day we discover music and acts we grow to love or get turned off by acts we didn’t mind in the first place. We learnt that funk-soul get up The Internet was just okay live, hype act Grimes could be really annoying, electropop Scots CHVRCHES used a light show to mask whatever they lacked, singer-songwriter Shamir was an absolute delight to watch, Britpop act The 1975 brought in a mixed bag of reviews (and whole lot of milennials), and electronic duo Purity Ring put on perhaps the best set of Laneway. But really, that’s just what we thought. One thing’s for sure, Laneway has become fun again — a place where we’re still picking up new things. Except the rubbish, we guess.

Words by Ilyas Sholihyn and Delfina Utomo