Hammock market at BMMF9

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Design team: Pitupong Chaowakul with Hutsama Juntaratana, Nattaphon Worawanitchaphong and Krit Parephan

Location: The Ocean, Nakornratchasima, Thailand

Completion: Dec 2018

Client: Gan & GMM Grammy

Using Khmar cloths to build a pavilion’s roof is not new for us, neither creating a hammock space. But combining the 2 ideas is our first time and it is meant to be here in BMMF9. We are happy to see this element re-appearing in the event as it is one of the original elements created since the 1st edition of Big Mountain Music Festival back in 2010.

Khmar 9.0 pattern design
Day time testing
Checking Khmar 9.0 sample at our office
The unusual color thread used for Khmar, ‘fluorescent green’

Typically our Khmar market have been built using bamboo tided with PVC rope, a very traditional temporary way of erecting such structure. But because of the site constraint, we have to change it to a steel scaffolding and pipe system which save time and damage ground condition less. 1080 pieces of cloths are hung in pattern creating shading for 72 hammocks below. UV lighting is installed to create a dim atmosphere where fluorescent stripes on the roof shine. The Hammock market is placed in front of food stalls making it a space for people to relax after eating. A lot of people spend the whole night here after long days of music.

Rumwong stage at BMMF9, 2018

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Design Team: Pitupong Chaowakul with Suttahathai Niyomwas and Rachanone Thaikaew

Location: The Ocean, Nakornratchasima, Thailand

Completion: December 2018

Client: Gan & GMM Grammy

Many times our designs start from silly ideas… Rumwong stage is truly one of those cases. Born to house a traditional dance activity widely popular in Thailand’s villages, the stage has a very unique set up. The musicians usually play folk music and their audiences dance around in circle. Sometimes there are dancers on stage whom people can go asking to dance with. These days, Rumwong is not easy to find in big cities of Thailand, therefore having it in Big Mountain Music Festival is an eye opening for for a lot of young audiences.

Typical Rumwong dance

From our observation, Rumwong dance needs a central pivot as one of important elements for people to dancing around (almost like a camp fire dance.) Back in 2014, we came up with a silly idea of putting “Monster” in the center of the stage and let the audience having activities around it. We learned it from a typical Japanese super hero series where gigantic monsters invade the world and always triumphed. The 6 m. high inflatable green monster was made following a 2D sketch and placed as an emblem of this stage for the last 5 edition of BMMF.

This year sees a return of many items from previous BMMF celebrating its 9th edition. We place the UFO (from District 9 stage) above the Monster in Rumwong stage making this stage even more fun… A giant abduction. Rumwong stage, ran by a famous rapper, Jeoy Boy, has always been full of fun mixing different genre of Thai music together with folk song.

Rumwong stage in full action

Secret Stage at BMMF9, 2018 Toilets, tunnel & bananas

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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
“DJ ฺBANANA”

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.

During day time Stand up comedy performance
Night time Trasher’s show

HIP HOP stage at BMMF9, 2018

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Design team: Pitupong Chaowakul with Sujinda Kawkam, Katanyoo Angwatanapanich

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

Client: Gan & GMM Grammy

Light plotting: Jiro Endo

Light operation: T Lighting

Final diagram

Hip-Hop stage is a brand new stage at Big Mountain Music Festival 9, 2018, making it the 10th stage in the event. Corresponding to the sharp rising popularity of the Genre in Thailand, the stage has to accommodate quite a number of Thai hip-hop fans. We made it an open stage following Big Mountain stage design fashion… a hip-hop crowd in a green field (but because of the unusual heavy rainfall on the first day, it became a stage on a mud field.)

Our design approach is to make a very subtle backdrop in triangular shape yet can be transformed to an aggressive/active scenography that suit hip-hop genre. The backdrop is simply composed of 2 pieces of stretched black curtains over-layed on steel scaffolding system. The blackness of the fabrics is enough to hide presence of lighting fixture and translucent enough for light to emit through. During daytime the stage is almost like a black pyramid standing on a green field, while during the night, energy is transmitted to audiences in the form of lights.

Be late BMMF 2017 photo update

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BMMF8_02

Big Mountain 9 will take place in a little more than 2 week, it’s our bad habit not to wrap up the year before’s work. However it’s nice that we don’t forget it and do it now rather than not. Big Mountain 2017 was quite a success. 70,000 people attended the event and had fun for 2 nights in the mountain at Pak Chong, Thailand. As usual, we design a handful of elements in the festival for people to enjoy with. Looking forward to the coming event in a few weeks already.. It’s a mountain time.

“This is it” Glass hopper is ready for Big Mountain II

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After 8 months of preparation, Supermachine Studio with Jiro Endo team under the name “Glass hopper” is ready for production for Big Mountain music festival II at Bonanza, Saraburi. The construction on site has already started on over 20 items we design, from stages, facilities to tiny event rubber stamps.

Some images from the construction going on at the site at the moment:

The cow gate is back welcoming people

 

Ratchaprasong market 100+ units of outdoor shopping

Collective bath in "men" toilet

Shower units at Toilet city

A-KOH-JON Pub aka. Circus Pub

Big Mountian Music Festival I (Final)

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During Big Mountain Music Festival from 5-7th Feburary 2010 in Khao Yai, Thailand, there were more than 25,000 people joining the event. The 2 day-2 night music festival make it one of the biggest outdoor music event in Thailand. Supermachine Studio and Team Jiro would like to present to you some images of the completed project as we (as event designers) spent 1 year in advance preparing the project. In the project, there are a lot of architecture, installation & stage design that interpret contemporary Thai society. (Details of some items can be trace from the side bar category; Big Mountain Music Festival. More will be posted)

Photographs: courtesy of Gayray Team and Pitupong Chaowakul