Garden Beats 2017

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It being my first time to a music festival – ever – I arrived unprepared. No mosquito repellent (seriously, the mosquitoes at Fort Canning are no joke), no picnic mat, and also dressed in clothes with no pockets. Tip: Always make sure you have pockets at music festivals.

We followed the thumping bass of music blasting through the stage speakers to the festival entrance, where we got our tickets scanned and festival bracelets strapped on.The first thought I had when I walked into the festival grounds was: “This is all so hipster.” (Real talk, there were haystacks everywhere.)

People were walking around clad in freshly made flower crowns, sitting on their picnic mats and enjoying a cold beer or cider, and soaking up the festival atmosphere and the warm sunshine. There was even a yoga session going on, where people could go and share their positive energy with others.

We met one of our friends at the festival, who kindly shared her picnic mat and food with us. We walked around the festival grounds, taking in the sights of people warming up to Nils Hoffman’s set on the dance floor in front of the stage, and others simply enjoying the sun on their backs.

Despite electronic music being something I’m not extremely into, I had a ton of fun dancing to it! Somehow, it’s really easy to get more energy from everyone else dancing, and no one really cared about how stupid I might’ve looked. It really let me enjoy the music – even though I'd never heard of half the performers – and have more fun.

Everyone’s friends on the dance floor; smiling and talking to another even though no one really knew each other, and it made our experience of being pressed against a mass of sweaty bodies somewhat more enjoyable. It was also amusing to see people get up to drunken shenanigans as the night progressed, but getting beer thrown on us at various times was probably the worst part of all that.

There was also an after party, which we didn’t attend – we were beat and weren’t ready to party another 6 hours. Honestly, kudos to whoever can last that long on their feet, mine were ready to fall off.

Garden Beats was the first ever music festival I’ve been to, and it’ll definitely not be the last. I had a great time partying with my friends and even strangers, and I definitely can’t wait for more.

Written by:Robyn Lee