Last weekend I attended the fourth Stone Free Music Festival. It was held in the outskirts of Bangkok, somewhere out near Suvarnabhumi Airport, on a large, empty piece of land that was almost devoid of trees and grass, and with a huge lake right in the middle. It looked like the surface of Mars (except for the lake). And during the day it was hot. Extremely hot. The kind of hot where it feels as if your blood is about to boil and your brain is slowly roasting inside your head. In the evening it cooled down quite a lot, but with the cool air came swarms of mosquitoes. And rain.
Despite these discomforts, the festival was an amazing experience, mostly due to the quality of the music performed by the numerous bands over the three days and two nights that the festival was held. All of the performers were "indie" in the true sense of the word — bands without major label backing who do it all themselves simply for the love of creating and performing music.
Stone Free itself was also a totally independent affair, completely free from corporate sponsorship, government support or anything else. It was simply put together by a group of friends who wanted to create a gathering of amazing bands and like-minded music lovers, doing something for the community without asking for any great reward in return.
This kind of event is increasingly rare in the world today, and it was inspiring to witness. Also inspiring was the amazing amount of local talent at the event, with so many great bands performing original music that's every bit as good as what you could find anywhere in the world. There were too many great bands at the festival to single out just a few, but anybody who is interested in who performed can check out Stone Free's Facebook page. All of the bands that played are worth checking out.
All of the Stone Free events have been excellent, and each has proved that when enthusiastic and imaginative people get together, they can make something exciting happen seemingly from nothing. I don't think I'm alone in hoping there'll be more Stone Free festivals in the future, and that it always retains its original spirit.
Ben Edwards
Editor
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