Axis Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival
Published: ASIA
INDONESIA: A change of name and venue reflect the growing stature of the Java Jazz Festival, with its sound systems remaining at the top of the bill.
A good indication of a music festival’s popularity is its ticket sales, a measure that the Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival (JIJJF) illustrates well. During its first year in 2005, it attracted 57,800 people but had grown to become the largest jazz festival in the Southern Hemisphere by 2009 with a gross attendance of 84,350 people. With such a rise in visitor numbers, the organiser – Java Festival Production – chose to relocate the festival to a larger venue in 2010. Consequently, the Jakarta International Expo Kemayoran, in the heart of Central Jakarta, was the venue for the sixth JIJJF during March on account of it being able to hold more than 100,000 visitors over the course of three days.
Commercially, however, sponsorship balances the books in Asia more than ticket sales, and JIJJF continues to align increasing numbers of producers with marketing funds neatly in the conservative music niche it occupies. Carlsberg, LG, Lifebuoy, Jack Daniels and Vaseline were just some of the many who promoted their wares through the show. Food and drink brands have a natural synergy with music events, but other sectors can get a return on their investment in festival sponsorship if they fit and enhance the mood, environment and audience profile. Indeed, the day event has been renamed Axis Jakarta International Java Jazz Festival, reflecting the new sponsorship by the Axis Group.
An accomplished performer himself, chairman Peter F Gontha has been credited with bringing Jazz to Indonesia. He started private Television and Pay TV in Indonesia and is the owner of Jakarta’s top jazz venue, JAMZ, where major artists such as Chick Corea, Ramsey Lewis and George Duke have performed. Mr Gontha was keen to point out that food and beverage outlets could now cater for the masses at the JIJJF. The previous venue, the Jakarta Convention Centre, had restricted such services, leaving thirsty and hungry concertgoers queuing for long periods for little choice. Undoubtedly, this was another opportunity to boost the festival’s revenue, and two large covered outdoor areas offered everything from local satay to McDonalds.
The bulk of the visitors hail from Jakarta and West Java, but there are now signs that newcomers from outside of Jakarta are being drawn to the event. In the long run, Java Jazz may also boost the country’s tourist industry, with the potential to promote Jakarta as a destination for visitors over the festival’s duration. In addition, there are people coming from neighbouring countries to attend the festival, including Australia, New Zealand, Asia, North America and Europe. The festival also attracts a growing number of musical artists from Indonesia and overseas. According to Mr Gontha, many acclaimed international groups sent their CDs and asked to perform at Java Jazz, as the festival has become a crucial promotional ground for jazz groups, old and new. The international media has also started to show an interest in covering the event, and so Indonesia’s biggest festival adopted a new motto – ‘Bringing the World to Indonesia’.
This year’s headliner was diva Toni Braxton, and her appearance on Saturday night sparked a queue of thousands forming more than three hours before the concert. The show itself was on time and hailed as a critical success, including performances of all her well-known hits from ‘Love Shoulda Brought You Home’ to ‘He Wasn’t Man Enough’. It seemed to surprise the artist that the audience could sing together with her, and so she picked a few of them to sing and dance on stage.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono attended the show on the Saturday night, following a week`s tense political events over the Bank Century bailout case. Accompanied by First Lady Ani Yudhoyono, the President watched a set performed by Diane Warren in Hall D2.
So far, so good – but the weekend’s edition of the Jakarta Post was accurate in its condemnation of the capital city’s venues: ‘Jakarta has, over the past few years, seen its skyline remodelled with the mushrooming of new skyscrapers,’ it said. ‘The city has also seen the rise of shining new shopping centres, which offer the latest products from around the world. One major drawback Jakarta still suffers is the lack of world-class facilities to host such events.’ The JI Expo in Kemayoran certainly is not a venue in which to host such an event, and although it could hold greater numbers of people together with F&B caterers, the logistics are poor and the acoustics notoriously harsh. Unless the traffic and the road systems in Jakarta can be improved, then logistical problems will continue to plague the Indonesian capital. Acoustically, it doesn’t matter how many drapes are hung or what expertise and technology the production companies can offer if the individual hall venues are built in concrete and covered with corrugated iron roofs.
In addition to the 150-plus performances that took place on the various stages over the course of the festival, there was a series of interactive workshops and music clinics where participants could play and discuss issues in ethnic music, jazz, pop and rock ‘n’ roll. These outdoor stages were generally served by smaller, mobile PA systems, with KV2, Qube and Mackie speakers in evidence. The stages were not too distant from one another, but with the addition of 30,000 concertgoers plus staff on each day, traffic between the stages was heavy. The scheduling meant stage hopping and leaving a show sooner in order to catch another by entering into a melée of human traffic.
On stage
As in previous years, production duties in the various halls were largely shared by Donny Sound Systems (DSS) and Sumber Ria – who supplied the audio system in Hall D1 and D2, where the headlining acts performed on each night. A DiGiCo D5 was positioned at FOH to mix all the main stage events, with Steinberg’s Cubase plug-ins and reverb effects used on the desk. The individual concerts were recorded on an Allen & Heath iLive 80 console via a Madi card using Merging Technologies Pyramix software. An EAW KF760 line array system, configured in LR clusters of 12 cabinets per side was augmented by 20 custom subwoofers per side, all was managed by XTA DP226 processors and equalised with XTA GQ600s. Two monitor mixing boards were used, according to the individual desires of the travelling artists engineers, with a digital Yamaha PM5000 coupled with a Soundcraft Series 5, playing through Meyer MJF212 monitors. The bulk of the microphones used on stage were Shure models, with a number of AKG vocal and instrument microphones and DPA capsules used as overheads on drums.
Following a polished performance by Chieli Minucci and Special EFX in Hall D1 on the opening night, FOH engineer Jonathan Steiner confessed that he was simply relieved that the set had gone without a hitch: ‘I knew there was a problem during the sound check as the faders weren’t acting properly,’ he revealed. ‘We brought the equipment in yesterday when there was no air conditioning and the difference in heat and humidity has had an effect. Happily, two faders worked and I mapped them to other banks and memorised them.’ Luckily, Zed Heng from DiGiCo distributor Team 108 was on hand, and he removed the faders after the set and rectified the problem. ‘The last time I used the D5 was at the same festival here last year,’ continued Mr Steiner. ‘Unfortunately, I couldn’t interface the programme, but I managed to pre-programme at the hotel before hand and it all worked out fine. I use a lot of digital boards and the D5 is fairly straightforward.’
Hall A2 and A3 had two parallel stages allowing the production crews to work behind the scenes on one, while the other was being used. Similarly, two DiGiCo SD7 consoles were used in the same manner at FOH, where the engineers could download presets from a memory stick onto the console’s hard drive in readiness for their set. Ten EAW KF760 cabinets were hung on each side of the stage and supplemented by 10 custom subwoofers, while six RCF ART 500 speakers were used as front fill. Powered by Crest 4801 and 8001 amplifiers, loudspeaker management was handled by XTA DP226 processors. Like most of the other halls, an Allen & Heath ML5000 console was used for monitoring, mixing the bands to 11 (22 counting both stages) on-stage MJF212 speakers. Microphones used here were exclusively Shure, AKG and DPA. Coverage was inconsistent in this huge cavernous venue and splash off the rear wall was common, but given the venue’s tricky acoustics, this was to be expected.
The stage layout in Hall D2 meant that the acoustics were possibly worse here than any of the other stages. Fortunately, the acoustics may not have been a major problem for the two parallel outdoor stages, but pre-festival torrential rain could have tested the endurance levels beyond repair. DSS ensured that all the electrical supplies and loudspeakers were fully protected from the elements, however, and the performances went without a hitch. The sets were mixed on Allen & Heath iLive-T112 and T80 consoles. An usual hybrid of RCF ART 500 cabinets served as monitors with Mackie dual 15-inch speakers as fills, while EAW KF760 speakers supplemented by customised subwoofers for the main PA system.
Hall A1 was sponsored by the Indonesian Bank BNI, where DSS provided a DAS Audio Aero 38A speaker system, consisting of six speakers per side supplemented by four DAS dual 18-inch subwoofers per side. The sets here were mixed on an Allen & Heath ML5000 console, with Avant 12A speakers used as monitors and DAS Audio Compact 2 systems as front fill. Adjacent to Hall A1, Hall B2 had a similar set-up, using the same DAS Audio speaker systems. DSS also supplied Hall B1, where an Allen & Heath iLive-T112 console mixed performances through a C-Mark PA line array system consisting of 12 cabinets and six dual 18-inch subwoofers per side.
Several new loudspeaker systems were used at this year’s JIJJF. Hall C1, sponsored by LG, was possibly the only hall to be blessed with good acoustics. It was here that the audience could be treated to the delights of an HK Cohedra line array system, consisting of eight cabinets per side further boosted by 10 ground stacked Cohedra subwoofers and powered entirely by VQ2400 amplifiers. A DiGiCo D5 console was used at FOH, while XTA GQ600 graphic equalisers also played a role in the mix. Upstairs in the Semeru Hall, a Digidesign Venue console was used for mixing, while backline and instrument supplier PT Citra Intirama once again sponsored many of the stages.
To those with disposable income, ticket prices may appear low at 500,000 Rupiah (approximately US$50) per day or 1,000,000 Rupiah for all three days. The locals would disagree, however, and there were mutterings among Jakartans that the ticket prices were beyond most people’s budgets. Although gate receipts and merchandising provide alternative sources of income, it is the heavy sponsorship of the JIJJF that contributes most to the overall bills accrued by the festival. If Indonesia can demonstrate and promote itself as a safe country to visit to the rest of the world, maybe the murmurings from locals will become less important. An increase in international numbers will of course boost the local economy – namely for hotels, restaurants and entertainment outlets. A new venue with good acoustics would also do the JIJJF a world of good before the world comes to Indonesia.