IGNITE! Music Festival is back!

The biggest local music festival is set to enthral music lovers this 11-22 August with various workshops, showcases and a two-day Main Festival Stage which would happen on 21 & 22 August.

After seven successful runs since 2008, Republic Polytechnic (RP) and The Republic Cultural Centre (TRCC) are pleased to present IGNITE! Music Festival 2015. With the participation of more than 600 students, the annual music festival prides itself with a fully run concert by students of RP. The student-driven festival, which circles around the theme – Passion and Compassion – aims to promote the best of local music in a great setting, for a good cause. Best of all, it’s free!

Every year, IGNITE! is armed with a series of fringe events and workshops. IGNITE! 2015 is all set to entertain music enthusiasts once again with Gig Photography Workshop, Band Management Dialogue, Song Writing Workshop and many more.

Last year, the two-day festival garnered more than 10,000 festival goers – from screaming fan girls, laid back hipsters to head banging rockers – all came down to RP to enjoy the good music from bands like 53A, Aspectrum, Caracal, Gentle Bones, ShiGGa Shay, The Sam Willows and RP’s very own Jammerz Arena and Replug IG. This year, IGNITE! 2015 is set to bring down the house once again, featuring the best of local acts which would be made known soon.

Besides good music, there would also be a village of booths set up to complete the IGNITE! experience. From food and beverages to merchandised booths mended by sponsors, festival goers can expect a happy tummy whilst enjoying the good music and shop for their fashion needs.

With a bigger setting, the festival aims to reach out to even more partners this year – including Volunteer Welfare Organisations, Homes and many more. Promoting youth volunteerism through music, booth of RP’s Service Learning Club would be housed within the festival village alongside buskers, lifestyle booths and many more!

Keep Up with IGNITE! Music Festival

Always be updated by following IGNITE!’s social media plug-ins; stay tuned to find out the full band line-up and how to take part in interesting online competitions and stand the chance to win attractive prizes.

Official Website: http://www.ignitemusicfest.com
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ignitemusicfest
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/IgniteMusicFestival
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/IgniteMusicFest
Instagram: http://instagram.com/ignitemusicfest

IGNITE! The Compassion

On the 14th of June, close to 100 students were part of IGNITE!'s service learning project with Very Special Arts (VSA).

Back for its seventh year running, VSA is a nationwide concert by artists from the special needs community. With 12 spirited performances from over 200 members of various special schools and voluntary welfare organisations in Singapore, the concert hopes to inspire with performers' tenacity in overcoming all odds with passion.

Media Ninjas: IGNITE! Media Ninja, Muhammad Rabbani, behind-the-scenes of Welcome To My World Concert, taking snippets of other student crews on the job. PHOTO BY: Ariani Adam

Tying in closely with IGNITE! Music Festival's recurring theme of Passion and Compassion, Welcome To My World Concert parks perfectly under IGNITE!'s efforts to reach out to the less fortunate for a cause. The students were extensively involved with various roles ranging from Stage Crew, Artiste Liaison Officer, Media Crew to even Front-of-House Crew.

From 13th June, students were already activated for duty as they commenced sound checks and rehearsals for the groups to familiarise themselves with the stage and venue. With not much time in hand, the IGNITE! Team had a lot of planning and prepping to do to ensure that the show ran smoothly.

On The Ball: Stage Crews ensured that they prepared equipment beforehand to avoid any discrepancies during the show. PHOTO BY: Ariani Adam

At backstage, the vibes were really lively as crew put on their best smiles to greet the performers on stage for their sound checks. Although there were a lot of things to be done, the crew tried their best to work around the tight schedules, showing positivity across the room.

Chief Artiste Liaison Officer, Kelwen Liew, said, “It’s really nice to see different people coming together. Their willingness to learn is really encouraging.” Kelwen is a Year 2 student studying Arts and Theatre Management and the Secretary for Campus Arts Productions (CAP).

Behind The Scenes: Meet the people behind-the-scenes, (from left to right) Kenny Lim (IGNITE! Music Festival Producer), Nurul Ainnie (Student Co-Producer), Syed Ali (Stage Manager) and Nethaniel Jotham (Student Producer). PHOTO BY: Ariani Adam

No doubt that it was a really different environment for the students, but it was certain that each and every one of them enjoyed themselves and learnt something along the way.

“It’s really humbling to see the performers with different disabilities; if they could do amazing things, we should be thankful and stop giving excuses,” said Zainulrahman Bin Motalif, Assistant Stage Manager. Zainulrahman is also a Year 2 studying Customer Relationship and Service Management, and an active member of Jammerz Arena.