In a high season full of big-name festivals, the Beatforest electronic music and environmental festival stands out as unique. It’s a lowkey affair but still a destination event, one just far enough out of the city to feel distant but outfitted with enough amenities to keep even the most cranky of festival-goers happy. One small enough to make it feel like a community affair, but still packed with an impressive and extensive lineup. And they try to give back to the area hosting them through a tree-planting event and other activities.
Beatforest, held on January 25th, is organized by a collection of local musical stalwarts, including founders May Tae and Tul Waitoonkiat and music directors Tempo BKK—so you can be sure that they have the tunes settled. But it’s obviously about more than just the music. “We care about our planet,” they say of their inspiration for hosting an environmental festival. “Through music and art, we hope to show everyone how they can make a difference and live more sustainably.”
When guests arrive, they’ll be able to see the results of last year’s efforts since it will be held on the same site where organizers previously planted 1,000 trees and partygoers planted an another 100. The festival is being held in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand’s first national park. But the area it’s hosted at has suffered from deforestation, which they say is due to real estate creeping into its boundaries. In addition to the planting, they’re organizing “community clean-ups, promoting recycling and composting, and working on an edible flowers farm project to enhance local biodiversity and offer fresh produce,” all organized alongside a local environmental non-profit.
This year, Beatforest is making an effort to present a wider range of electronic genres and increase the amount of local and regional artists. Some of our readers might appreciate Kadapat‘s experimental electronic gamelan from Bali or the hard techno and trance of Turkey’s JakoJako. There are also unannounced performances like Xin Lie‘s brand of techy bass born in the underground raves of Bandung the boundary-pushing Swiss producer NVST. You can also catch sets by locals like Club Mascot and DJ Zombie. There will also be lighting and visual installations by Human Spectrum and Kobored. Although it’s only a one-day event, they’ll stretch the party from before sunset to well after sunrise, and the hotel packages allow party people to recover at their leisure through the following night (and then still catch a shuttle back to the city). You really can have it all.
