Last week I went to the first Jakarta Rock Parade, which was nothing like what I imagined a rock music event should've been. The sound system was great and the line ups were awesome, there were lots of legendary and rising local bands scheduled to play. But, the event wasn't a success because the organizer missed out a few things.
Firstly, the ticket price. Ok, I understand that rock music event requires a big budget for the sound systems, the music instruments and paying the bands, of course. But I feel like, if you're just starting a music event (and planning to make it an annual event) and most of your line-ups are local indie bands, I feel it's better to focus on getting famous. Would you rather have an explosion of audience or keep your event exclusive to certain people who can afford the tickets?
I think rock music is a channel to release our feeling. Be angry, be mad, be loud, together. So, if I were the event organizer, I would lean towards the volume of the visitors rather then making money. I want to get as much people as I could to scream ROCK and make noise at my event and about my event.
The price of the ticket isn't considered expensive, if you compared it with international rock music festival such as Fuji Rock or even our own Java Jazz. But one thing that was missed is a consideration at the target audience's financial capability, maybe? The main audience will be the young people and the young at heart. And honestly speaking, young people in Jakarta don't make enough and we're mostly underpaid. Jakarta is tough, dude! Take for example my friends and I, we barely meet the minimum living standard. We live with our parents, we save a little, help paying our parents' monthly expenses (which are also ours) and we have to spend/lavish wisely. So, if you asked me to pay quadruple the price for the local indie bands gigs, I might think, A LOT.
Well, ok, there were a range of old time favorites like Flowers, Rumah Sakit, The Upstairs, Efek Rumah Kaca, Koil, Getah and the legendary Andy Tielmans of the Tielmans Brothers that would attract a more mature (and hopefully financially better) group of audience. But I'm not sure about how the way they scheduled the performance in four different stages. I know that Java Jazz works this way too but somehow I feel that at Jakarta Rock Parade, the arrangement didn't really seem appealing.
The second (and this is really bad) was the last minute cancellation of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and some other bands. Some people might have worked to empty their schedule and last minute cancellation is bad news. And for some younger people who might have sacrificed their other leisure budget on this, they didn't get their money back. Really? I'm not 100% sure if at the end the event organizer managed to give back some money, but if there's a non-refund policy, it's a terrible misfortune. I would be super upset if I spent my money on the ticket.
So, at the last day of the event, they dropped the price from 200,000 IDR to 50,000 IDR.
It was too late, nobody wants to buy a sour fruit. The event failed but I was happy though to enjoy great music with superior sound quality, it's just I missed being in the crowd screaming my heart out.
This should be a great parade, maybe next time.
Firstly, the ticket price. Ok, I understand that rock music event requires a big budget for the sound systems, the music instruments and paying the bands, of course. But I feel like, if you're just starting a music event (and planning to make it an annual event) and most of your line-ups are local indie bands, I feel it's better to focus on getting famous. Would you rather have an explosion of audience or keep your event exclusive to certain people who can afford the tickets?
I think rock music is a channel to release our feeling. Be angry, be mad, be loud, together. So, if I were the event organizer, I would lean towards the volume of the visitors rather then making money. I want to get as much people as I could to scream ROCK and make noise at my event and about my event.
The price of the ticket isn't considered expensive, if you compared it with international rock music festival such as Fuji Rock or even our own Java Jazz. But one thing that was missed is a consideration at the target audience's financial capability, maybe? The main audience will be the young people and the young at heart. And honestly speaking, young people in Jakarta don't make enough and we're mostly underpaid. Jakarta is tough, dude! Take for example my friends and I, we barely meet the minimum living standard. We live with our parents, we save a little, help paying our parents' monthly expenses (which are also ours) and we have to spend/lavish wisely. So, if you asked me to pay quadruple the price for the local indie bands gigs, I might think, A LOT.
Well, ok, there were a range of old time favorites like Flowers, Rumah Sakit, The Upstairs, Efek Rumah Kaca, Koil, Getah and the legendary Andy Tielmans of the Tielmans Brothers that would attract a more mature (and hopefully financially better) group of audience. But I'm not sure about how the way they scheduled the performance in four different stages. I know that Java Jazz works this way too but somehow I feel that at Jakarta Rock Parade, the arrangement didn't really seem appealing.
The second (and this is really bad) was the last minute cancellation of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and some other bands. Some people might have worked to empty their schedule and last minute cancellation is bad news. And for some younger people who might have sacrificed their other leisure budget on this, they didn't get their money back. Really? I'm not 100% sure if at the end the event organizer managed to give back some money, but if there's a non-refund policy, it's a terrible misfortune. I would be super upset if I spent my money on the ticket.
So, at the last day of the event, they dropped the price from 200,000 IDR to 50,000 IDR.
It was too late, nobody wants to buy a sour fruit. The event failed but I was happy though to enjoy great music with superior sound quality, it's just I missed being in the crowd screaming my heart out.
This should be a great parade, maybe next time.
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