Souled Out

Last night I went to Soulnation festival, because the office opened a booth and the main sponsor was a client. Watched some shows, and even caught Akon's first song on his show, which I didn't watch further as it was already approaching midnight and I was already too damn sleepy to care.

My thoughts on the festival? JFP have done it again; although the crowd wasn't as packed as you would see at Java Jazz Festival - the other big event run by JFP, if you don't know - I think that for a first-of-its-kind event, the turnout was good, the lineup of booth partners was interesting (there was only 1 empty booth), the sponsors got strong branding, and the music was good. There was even a small tent/room where kids could come and DJ or breakdance - something very interesting to put in the show's program. And yes, I mean kids - I think 80% of the visitors were high school students, complete with hip hop attire. The rest of the people there were either media, part of the commitee, sponsors, or simply a client who got free tickets.

It got me feeling old. Oh well.

The complete ripoff was not the show itself - it was the parking! The kids guarding cars outside the venue - and inside the Senayan sports area - asked for IDR 20.000!!! That's on top of the IDR 3.000 per car that is paid at the entrance of the complex. And if you go there by taxi, good luck finding one going home, which will probably cost you more.