Miguel Ramirez
Captivated by major music events from a young age, Iqbal Ameer worked his way through the ranks and now holds the top position at one of Asia’s premier music events management company.
Iqbal is responsible for overseeing a dedicated team that successfully produces thousands-capacity events such as Malaysia’s premier rock festival, Rockaway Festival, Southeast Asia’s largest music festival, Future Music Festival Asia and most recently, IT’S THE SHIP, Asia’s largest music festival on a cruise ship.
Livescape has seen large numbers of Australians (over 5,000 people from Australia) attended FMFA in Malaysia in recent years – with numbers of Australians attending growing by an average yearly rate of close to 35%. Also for the It’s the Ship music event – 10% of attendees were Australian and there are expectations that this will grow to 20-30% next year.
[button url=”http://www.livescape.asia/” style=”red” size=”medium” type=”square” icon=”” target=”_blank”] Livescape [/button] [button url=”http://www.itstheship.com/” style=”green” size=”medium” type=”square” icon=”” target=”_blank”] IT’S THE SHIP [/button] [button url=”http://www.futuremusicfestival.asia/2015/” style=”yellow” size=”medium” type=”square” icon=”” target=”_blank”] Future Music Festival Asia [/button]
How did you first get started in the business?
You could say my university life was very exciting – I started a few business in the event space while I was studying. First was Kreme Kart which was basically an ice cream truck that went to events. Next, my friends and I started up an F&B business – after a while organising events, experiencing the F&B side and seeing how events were organised through Kreme Kart I decided when I was back in Malaysia to try something new – gathered up some friends and Livescape was born.
Asia is where it’s at for some of the world’s biggest live music events and festivals, with not only Australian group numbers growing, but the rest of the world as well. How would you compare the electronic dance music scene in Asia to elsewhere in the world?
It really is an exciting time for Asia at the moment when it comes to live music events. If you look at the industry’s growth in the last 4 – 5 years, it’s been quite phenomenal. Over the years, we have seen the emergence of a number of large scale events, particularly dance music events. If you look at Southeast Asia, you’ve got the big players like Djakarta Warehouse Project, ZoukOut, and even Ultra has just started coming into this part of the region recently, and then there’s us, FMFA as well. So fans here are really benefiting from the competition and I think it’s great for the industry as a whole.
One key difference is the level of music maturity of the fans here. If you look at the rest of the world, DJs playing genres like deep house, drum and bass, etc. would easily pack out an arena in the high thousands. Over here, fans are still predominantly more inclined towards the commercial. They aren’t exposed to the more complex genres yet, which is something we at Livescape are trying to change. We’ve recently introduced our experimental underground platform, the After Dark Social Club (ADSC). ADSC’s main objective is to educate and generate more awareness among EDM fans to expose them to more music styles and genres.
How has the scene changed over the past five years?
One key difference over the past few years is a growth in the number of music fans from Southeast Asia who are willing to spend good money to travel for music festivals, if it is able to offer them a unique experience. The line-up of any music festival is of course important, but after that, we’re essentially selling an experience, which is why music festivals in this part of the region tend to infuse tonnes of activations that allows the fans to engage with each other in a fun and unique way.
In the past, music festivals or raves in Asia were very straight forward. Two, three or four stages, and that’s it. Now you see theme park rides, extensive food villages, unique activations being included on site as part of the entire festival experience.
It is astounding how large and influential the Electronic Dance music industry is in Asia – how many Australians are travelling to Asia specifically for music festivals?
I can’t speak for the other music festivals but for our brands (FMFA and IT’S THE SHIP), there has been a significant influx of Aussies travelling to our events. In the past three years, we’ve seen slightly over 5,000 Aussies who have travelled specifically for our shows.
What is your opinion of the overall music festival scene in Australia?|
Australia definitely has a more mature audience when it comes to music taste. If you look at the music stand point alone, Aussies are at least 3 – 5 years ahead of Southeast Asians. Meaning, if a particular act or music genre is big in Australia, it will only be as big in Southeast Asia, 3 – 5 years later.
Music festivals in Australia are also very dependent on the season; festivals happen during the summer and not in the winter. This not only gives Australians a lot of options to choose from during summer, but they also have the opportunity to watch a wide spectrum of artists perform.
What motivated Livescape Asiato change the location of Future Music Festival Asia to Singapore?
t was the right progressive next step for the brand. Right now, we’ve been recognised as Southeast Asia’s largest music festival, but our goal within the next 3 years is to become the largest across the whole of Asia. And we feel Singapore, as a regional financial and aviation hub will be able to help us achieve that goal. At the end of the day, Future Music Festival Asia like its name suggests, belongs to fans from across Asia. And we feel that Singapore epitomises the Asia in Future Music Festival.
What are the biggest challenges you face each year?
FMFA is known as a brand that does not disappoint when it comes to delivering the best line up for its fans each year. We strive to bring music from the past, present and future to each FMFA because we not only want to bring good music across the board but also who we predict will be big in the future. With every FMFA, our goal is to make our line up bigger and better.
What are your hopes for the future of the electronic music scene in Asia?
Music festivals here are still pretty much in the growth stage, yet it has proven to have a huge following. Which is great, because that means, there are still opportunities for festival brands here to grow even further. I’d like to see Asians exposed to more genres within EDM. There are some really talented acts out there whom I feel, are not getting the credit they deserve. I’d also like to see some of our regional acts (some are just amazingly talented) take the big leap of going global. It’s something that we at Livescape are very passionate about as we feel there are some really talented Asian acts out there and we always want to be able to support them in any way we can to try to expose their music to an international crowd.
What are some key points Australian travellers should know when travelling to Asia for live music events?
- Get to know our culture. Asia is a very complex region with people coming from hundreds of diverse cultural backgrounds. What may seem normal in Australia, could potentially be offensive here. I guess having some respect and courtesy for the different religions and cultures could go a long way here.
- Get ready to eat… and then eat some more. We love our food in Asia, and understandably so because we do have really good food. Everything we do revolves around food – business deals, hanging out with friends, it’s even almost compulsory to have a hearty meal with friends after a clubbing or drinking session to cap off the night. So come hungry!
- Asians are a very hospitable bunch. Our intentions are good and we genuinely want to see people enjoy themselves and have a good time. We don’t have a secret agenda. We know of many people who have come to FMFA and have made good friends who have become best friends or partners!
What are some of the major music event or festival plans for Livescape in the next few years?
We’ve got some pretty exciting plans planned for the next two years specifically in Singapore. We’ve just opened our first foreign office in Singapore a couple of months back as part of our regional expansion plans. We can’t reveal the exact festivals as yet, but we’re looking at introducing 2 more large scale festivals into Singapore at the moment (one being a 20,000 capacity show, the other, 35,000 capacity).
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