Pai in the sky

Published on February 16, 2008

The event organiser, Amnouy Srisombut.

There was no room at the inn. There was even less room at the guesthouse. There wasn't even room at the resort. Desperate-looking travellers lugged around their gear in a fruitless search for accommodation, as thousands of music lovers of all ages and nationalities wound their way up to the small town of Pai in Mae Hong Son province last weekend for the third Reggae/Ska Music Festival.

This year's two-night festival was held in the name of combating global warming, with non-governmental organisations such as Greenpeace promoting their message, but was soon being affectionately dubbed "the Pai Lovolution".

Festival organiser Amnouy Srisombut, who's better known as Dang Cowboy, only spent a small amount on promotion, yet twice as many people showed up this year to enjoy the music and good vibes.

"I don't use much money for promotion but I have a lot of friends," smiles the 46-year-old self-described hippie.

"Around 5,000 people came this year, some from as far as Europe, so the festival was a great success. I'm very happy organising these events and I think everyone really enjoyed it."

The fun began outside the main gates, where world music and percussion bands, including the high-energy, talented and very popular Backpacker Percussion, got revellers warmed up for the main events, although some might say they stole the show.

The main stage was set up across a narrow bamboo bridge through the spectacular Pai Treehouse Resort, with old Thai cowboys selling food, clothes and jewellery around the edge of the arena.

While bands such as Job 2 Do and Bangkok's Palmy and T-Bone drew crowds of boogying music-lovers, many were happy to sit around the camp fires appreciating the music from afar and getting to know new people from all over the world.

Michael Meallem, 37, an Englishman who lives in Chiang Mai, loved everything about the festival.

"It was wicked. Good vibe, beautiful people, great music. It was just cool, everyone sitting by the fire, relaxing to the music."

The artists themselves seemed to be having a great time too, enjoying the buzz from their audience.

Artnarong Srisowan, bass player with world-music band Woodoo Jungle, said he loved meeting other musicians, as well as the audience.

"I enjoyed it very much. We met many people, many musicians, people enjoyed the festival a lot, so I enjoyed it," he said.

Amnouy organised this year's festival to draw attention to the downsides of development in Pai and the surrounding area.

"Looking at Pai, everything is going up, getting developed and getting bad. We are seeing lots of pollution, lots of plastic bags and lots of tourists. Thai businessmen come to Pai just to make money. They don't care about the environment," he says.

Most of the money raised from the festival will go back into surrounding hilltribe communities, to buy computers for the children.

The festival wrapped at around 3.30am on Sunday, with exhausted yet exhilarated music fans reluctant to leave the special community that had developed over the weekend.

Amnouy, who has been organising music events for around 15 years, says he hopes there'll be a fourth Pai Festival next year, but he's making no promises. "I'm not sure whether it will happen yet."

Lily Partland

Special to The Nation