Pattaya International Music Festival

Pattaya International Music Festival

This week I attended the Pattaya, Thailand International Music Festival. From a personal note, it was great to see so many local Thais and tourists sharing an event together. From a professional perspective, it was amazing to see their planning in action.

Pattaya has two main streets - one heading south along the beach and the other inland road heading north. The street heading south was closed for 3.5 km, meaning the usual busy traffic could be a nightmare. But the local authorities were able to accommodate the crowd with just half of it's major thoroughfares open.

The street that was closed had over 1500 vendors set up, in the street, allowing pedestrians to walk down the middle of this usually busy road with vendors on both sides.

I should add that the music festival was a three-day event and during the day, half of the vendors removed their stands allowing one lane of traffic. As darkness approached each day, the one-lane of cars was diverted and the vendors set up shop once again.

Now for the music. The festival included multiple concerts held simultaneously at multiple stages ( i think 4) set up along the 3.5 km road. So, as you walked along, there would be a stage set up in the road with hundreds, if not thousands, of people watching, singing and dancing. If you have never seen Thai dancing you are in for a treat. They have a fantastic time.

Imagine the planning and logistics involved in opening and closing streets twice a day, overseeing the traffic, organizing the multiple bands playing at multiple sites, providing security for the entire venue, designing contingency plans for the weather, getting the bands into the country, making hotel arrangements and even getting their equipment through the crowd. And then there are the logistics of clearing the stages and setting up for the next band. This is literally four concerts happening at the same time three times throughout the night.

The event (in it's 11th year) seemingly was nearly perfect. The weather cooperated, the traffic was manageable, the Thais danced and had a great time with minimal security required, the bands performed and while to the public it was a great time, knowing the amount of planning and preparation that is required for such an event, the organizers should be proud.