Bangkok’s 808 Festival hits new highs as EDM in Thailand explodes, but doesn’t forget its underground roots
Featuring the likes of Above & Beyond and DJ Axwell, this month’s 808 Festival is celebrating its fifth event in style, but according to the organiser it is getting harder to book acts with competition from events in cash-rich China
Bangkok’s 808 Festival has only been going for five years, but the electronic music scene in the Thai capital has changed beyond recognition during that period – from a relative backwater to EDM central.
This year’s 808 takes place on December 9 and 10 at Show DC Oasis Outdoor Arena and features the likes of British trance outfit Above & Beyond, Swedish DJ Axwell and rising Belgian techno DJ Amelie Lens.
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The festival was the first home-grown event to showcase a range of electronic music in Bangkok, from EDM to trap to techno. But its founder, Arsit Prachaseri, the CEO of promoter AG Productions/Retox Sessions, has been involved in Bangkok’s electronic music scene since 2003, when really there wasn’t one.
“Back then you could count on one hand how many clubs were playing electronic music,” he says. “Now there’s at least one festival a month in Bangkok devoted to EDM.”
The first 808, in 2013, attracted a crowd of 9,000 people and featured Japanese-American EDM star Steve Aoki, Dutch electro house act Bingo Players and Surinamese DJ Chuckie. Prachaseri says, however, that the breakthrough year was the second, with performances from US rapper Snoop Dogg and French electro act Justice. Other performers during the past five years have included Canadian techno icon Richie Hawtin, Welsh DJ Jamie Jones and US house/techno DJ Claude VonStroke.