Baybeats (11th ed.) Engaging the Youths & the Community

–Esplanade presents Baybeats (11th ed.) Engaging the Youths & the Community–

Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay celebrates the best of Asian alternative music at the 11th edition of Baybeats with over 50 free performances by 35 acts from 29 June to 1 July 2012. Baybeats aims to help the local music scene grow and galvanise the community in one weekend of fun, fresh and free-for-all great alternative Asian music.

Engaging the Youths

Beyond providing an exciting music programme line-up for all to enjoy, Esplanade is also committed to encouraging more youths to appreciate and support independent musicians from Asia. To encourage support through gig photography, the Baybeats Budding Photographers mentorship programme was launched in 2010 to provide opportunities for budding photographers to be mentored by professional photographer Aloysius Lim and hone their gig photography skills through on-the-job training. At the same time, these six budding photographers also contribute to the publicity of the Baybeats bands as selected photographs taken by them will be featured in the marketing materials of Baybeats and displayed at the Esplanade Community Wall on Level three during the festival the following year.

As part of Esplanade’s community engagement programme, members of the Esplanade Youths (EY) will also be doing their part to drum up publicity for the Baybeats bands. Established in 2004, Esplanade Youths seeks to encourage youth involvement in the arts. Last year, Esplanade initiated the Baybeats Budding Writers programme where Esplanade had EY members mentored by local singer-songwriter and music critic, Kevin Mathews. The mentorship happens again this year for six selected EYs and they have begun their interviews with the Baybeats 2012 bands. To help build awareness of the alternative music scene in Singapore, their articles will be published on the Esplanade Youths and Baybeats websites.

Esplanade will also be selecting EYs to form the Baybeats Street Team to take charge of spreading the word about Baybeats 2012. Through this programme, they will get up-close-and-personal with the local and regional artists performing at the festival, get firsthand information about the festival’s shows and other inside scoops. Then they will blog or tweet everything about the festival. In addition, students from Nanyang Polytechnic’s School of Interactive & Digital Media have designed postcards for each of the eight audition bands to be used in the publicity and promotion of their debut gigs at Baybeats 2012.

To foster a greater sense of ownership towards Baybeats amongst youths, some of the EY members who have undergone training as emcees for Esplanade’s programmes in the past will also get the chance to emcee at the various stages during Baybeats 2012. One of the EY members will also get to facilitate the meet-and-greet sessions with the artists at the Observation Deck (library@esplanade).

Engagement with the Community

Esplanade’s community engagement programme, which leverages on the centre’s accessible and wide-ranging annual calendar of presentations to bring the arts to community groups and beneficiaries of Voluntary Welfare Organisations, aims to serve the needs of diverse groups in Singapore through specially-developed and sustained arts programmes.

As part of Baybeats, Esplanade have engaged Tim Tay, a mix media artist to conduct a series of six workshops from 28 May – 7 June for 12 youth from Muhammadiyah Welfare Home. Under his guidance, the youth develop ideas to construct stage decoration pieces for each of the three main performance areas (Concourse, Outdoor Theatre and Powerhouse stage) at Esplanade. Using mainly recycled materials such as plastic bottles and soft drink cans, these youths will explore their creativity and create their own unique structures which will then be displayed at Esplanade during the festival.

Creative Entrepreneurs at the Festival Village

As one of Singapore’s biggest and most anticipated alternative music festivals that supports homegrown talents, Baybeats is also a platform for creative entrepreneurs to strut their stuff in visual arts, design and youth culture !t the festival village. This year marks the inception of the Baybeats Budding Entrepreneur award to give recognition to young social activists and creative entrepreneurs, under the age of 25, based in Singapore. The best proposal is awarded a three-day rent-free booth at the Baybeats