At the sixth Fat Festival last weekend, hip-hop group Buddha Bless fell from heaven to hell. The culprit - an uncooperative speaker. The background music to their hit song "Fire" was barely audible, with only the rappers' voices coming through. They tried it twice, and their other hit too, the aptly titled "Jai Yen Yen" ("Be Patient"). No dice.

"This is because of my bad karma," one of the guys told the crowd. "We're going to move from the Heaven stage to the Hell stage."

The roar of dismay was predictable - Hell, both the second venue at the festival and the place of damnation, had no air-conditioning. It was going to be hot and sweaty.

All the same, most of the group's fans made the trek to Hell and put on a steamy wait while the boys got set up again.

Just part of the fun at the Fat Festival, a high mass of music that gives hundreds of artists - new and old, almost any genre - a chance to show off to major crowds. Organisers said more than 200,000 people attended this year.

The onstage action was divided up among Heaven, where the party songs were heard, Hell for the rockers, Earth for easy listening, and A-Way G for the up-and-coming talent.

The festival this year shifted from a wide-open site to the Challenger Hall at the Impact Convention Centre in Muang Thong Thani. They thought rain was going to be the problem.

Hell was busy, just as it always is in the Bible stories. On Saturday Joey Boy followed Buddha Bless onstage, saying Hell felt like home.

By the time the NYU Club got started it was already midnight and few fans were prepared to stick around any longer.

The venue this year was fatter - you could fit eight soccer pitches in the 6,000-square-metre hall - but movement was restricted. The vendors' market was a maze where fans spent a lot of time finding their way around, time that could have been spent watching the shows.

There were also good films on view and a reportedly classy theatre, but most fans just quickly walked from one stage to another, missing the "extras" altogether. Festival organiser Yuthana "Ted" Boonorm, Click Radio's managing director, had the genius idea of monitoring all the events astride an electric scooter.

He would have found Earth and Heaven fairly cool with their air-conditioning, but fans were broiling in Hell and A-Way G, where sunshine blazed in over the perimeter wall. Early afternoon found a long queue of people along the shadow line.

In the middle of both these areas were places for smokers, a generous idea offset by the fact that they were set up like graveyards.

The perennial problem occasionally recurred of music from rival stages clashing, so concentration was at a premium.

New talent from abroad livened things up. On Saturday the much-anticipated Japanese outfit YMCK played to an appreciative crowd in Heaven. The lead singer, a cute girl in red, and her male bandmates in suits stood like robots, she singing in the sweetest voice, while a giant screen showed computer-game visuals.

There were some who thought it was all too cute and went straight to Hell, so to speak, but most stayed put right through to the band offering thanks in their electronic voices.

As for the Thai bands, those from the small record labels got a fair share of attention and grateful applause, but the better-known groups like Buddha Bless and Joey Boy showed that what's more obvious is more popular.

Unfortunately sometimes, popular groups don't stay around forever. The creative fuse fizzles. Fat Festival is a great starting place for other types of musicians to show there's always something else on offer.

Lisnaree Vichitsorasatra

The Nation