Some may argue that Singapore’s indie music cultural awakening began in 2011—when Australia’s St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival made its debut here. “At last, a music festival that’s actually good!” screamed hipsters, emerging from the nooks and crannies of our creatively stifled society, their Doc Marts and an appetite for non-mass record labels in tow. No small affair, the inaugural edition brought to our shores big names like The Temper Trap, Foals and Beach House as the headliners; the line-up for the following years would prove to be no less attractive.
Sadly, that may soon be about to end. Seven years on, the annual music festival has announced that its hotly anticipated January 2019 event will not be happening. In a Facebook and Instagram post on Oct 2, organizers explained that they would not be proceeding with the event due to “unavoidable logistical and programming complexities”. It may or may not return at a later date in the year, but there’s no denying the vague bleakness of their official statement.
Rumors of the Singapore edition wrapping for good began circulating as early as mid-September, when the line-up for Laneway Australia (which turns 15 next year) was released; it’s clear now that those rumors weren’t unfounded. If the postponement truly ends up a full-blown cancellation, well, it’s been a good run, Laneway.
