Secret Stage at BMMF9, 2018 Toilets, tunnel & bananas

Design team: Pitupong Chaowakul with Theerayut Somtua, Rachanone Thaikaew, Krit Parephan, Rachanone Thaikaew, Suttahathai Niyomwas and Nattaphon Worawanitchaphong

Light plotting: Duckunit

Location: Big Mountain Music Festival 9, The Ocean, Nakornratchasima, Thailand

Client: Gan & GMM Grammy

Photograph: Supermachine Studio

Big Mountain Music festival is truely meant to be for every one. In its 9th edition, there are music from almost all Genre across 10 stages. One of the stages that emphasizes this mindset is a stage called “Secret stage” ran by Trasher, a Thai party organizer famous among LGBT group. The model of this attraction is an evolution from Soi 2 stage appeared in BMMF3-BMMF6, a dance show-based stage with DJ in the center.

*Ref image: A poster of 1966 American film “Fantastic Voyage”*

*Ref image: Scene from Fantastic Voyage, a shrunken crew travelling inside the body*

The design is largely inspired by 1966 American Sci-fi movie, Fantastic voyage which is a story of a shrunk microscopic submarine that travel inside an injured scientist. In the movie, there are scenes showing the crews traveling into human’s vain and organs fighting with unwanted entities that cause disease.

Our idea is to hide the enclosed stage behind the toilet units as main idea is to make it a hidden attraction. Once entering the toilets door, people will go through a tunnel of stretched fabric flooded with dimmed black light. Then they will be directed to the main pub space where the stage on the other end is the main focus.

The main entrance of the stage is a 3 standing toilet units put in front of a corrugated zinc wall.

At our garage, our test mock up of the stretched fabric for the tunnel

During day time, a stand up comedy show filled up the tunnel

At night, “A Secret Fantastic Voyage”

*Ref image from SB furniture ads: A Typical LI-KAE stage set up*

For the stage, it takes a very primitive approach referencing a stage construction of Thailand’s traditional play, LI-KAE. It is composed of multi-layered painted curtain. With painted graphic on it, the backdrop creates an perspective illusion of a grand room in palace suiting LI-KAE stories. Our version of Secret stage back drop is printed with intestine graphic simply to suit a voyage into the body theme. However lighting placement is configured not in LI_KAE’s way but clubbing configuration. DJ booth is set in the center decorated with fresh thousand of bananas making it feel like he is performing in a pile of fresh fruits.