Vang Vieng Music Fest
"1, 2, 3 ... let's go!"
Unexpected things happen when travelling and our trip to Vang Vieng definitely came with a surprise. We’d treated ourselves to a nicer hotel, with a pool, but still within budget as it was a 15 minute walk into town. Only, the level of noise was like that of a nightclub, past 1am in the morning. We wondered if this was a birthday party, or an occasion on our first night, but when it came to our second night and still the noise was relentless, we started to worry. When we asked our hotel manager, he said things like “music yes”, “once a year”, “big music” …. hmmm.
We decided to do some investigating of our own. The music tended to start around 8/9pm and go well into early hours of the morning. One night, we walked around the hotel and saw that there were indeed lights and what seemed to be sound testing. Ahh, much closer now to the real deal.
Turns out, that Laos has their 1 music festival each year that the government endorses late night music and allows all curfews to be broken. It’s in the countryside of Vang Vieng and out of town away from the main town. Yep, the field across from our hotel was Laos’ one and only music festival venue. No wonder the hotel prices were decent!
Of course, what did we do? Embraced it! We could very well hear every beat from our hotel room, but why not join the fun? If we’re going to hear it anyway, we might as well enjoy ourselves. So we found ourselves at the largest festival Laos puts on, on Christmas Eve, for the equivalent of £9. It started at 4pm and continued until “late”. Well, at 2am, when the main stage finished their set and we’d had 10 hours of dancing on our feet, Lyndon and I could dance no more, despite the two smaller stages continuing until 4am!
The best thing about Vang Vieng music festival was that the music catered to all. There were 2 smaller stages: a constant rave stage and a stage for a mix of acoustic/country/indie bands nestled in a food court area. Then, there was the main stage where Laos’ most popular bands such as metal band Taitosphere played. In between sets, DJ Pousi would give us the best 90s cheesy mash ups we could hope for: you know the kind of ones you blast round the house on clean up days or when you want a good dance around the kitchen singing your heart out. In the midst of tens of thousands of Lao people who had travelled specifically for this, my own version of dance like no one is watching was in full force!
Although, we weren’t always in a world of our own. We met a Londoner who looked as baffled as we did and stuck together for a while. He was in Vientiane the day before and had been told by a guide that if there’s one thing he needed to do while he was in Laos, it was travel to Vang Vieng for the Christmas Eve music festival. This helped us understand how significant this festival was going to be and also help us understand the platform of patrons who had the prime spot for the main stage.
Security for the festival was as rigorous as you’d expect in the UK, with bag searches and the like. People were bringing fancy foldout picnic benches - similar to ones outside of static caravans at holiday parks- and pitched up with their food and drink. Considerately, the people that pitched up in this manner were on the outside of the main crowd area and over the course of the evening the path to the portaloos became an obstacle course of picnic tables, blankets, and festival goers led about in groups.
We attracted a bit of attention from our nearby festival goers, as it was clear we were tourists, but this almost made it better; people were glad to share their festival. We had people shaking hands, laughing with us, giving us ‘the nod’ and toasting beers. Their photographers got several photos of us too that have made it onto their promotional pages- our festival garb being somewhat lacking but they got a great one of Lyndon laughing. Is he laughing at me, or the fact he’s getting papped on the way to the loo? The best one was when I got collared by a group who flung their arms around me, grabbed my arms and we spun round and round and round several times laughing. It was like being greeted by an old pal who hadn’t seen us in years. We were embraced, celebrated and danced in a way that can only be described as Florence Welch does Cotton Eyed Joe!
I never claim to be a good dancer!
On our travels, the music scene has been delightfully 90s, or western hits in acoustic form. Sidenote: we listened to the most soulful yet solemn rendition of the YMCA from a busker in Chiang Rai food court. Laos seemed to have a real connection to Oasis and Celine Dion. Those who may not like these might complain that it gets too repetitive in Laos, although it’d take a lot of Dion for Lyndon to lose his affection for her ballads.
Nothing compares the thrill of live music though and as frequent gig revellers in the UK, we were very excited to attend the Vang Vieng Music festival and it did not disappoint.
Click the links below to the Facebook page to watch the videos.
👌🎊🎶🥰 you both look so gorgeous!!