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Dance to the music, dance for life! The upcoming CAMA Festival is not only an incredible day of non-stop music but with proceeds being donated to the Dutch NGO dance4life this is also a great opportunity to raise funds to help prevent the spread of HIV/ AIDS in Vietnam. Frank Patterson reports
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hen you live in Hanoi words like ‘international’, ‘music’ and ‘festival’ don’t often get strung together – unless you’re listening to your friend brag about how he or she’s off to Glastonbury this summer. So, once again, it’s time to doff the hat to CAMA (Club for Arts Music and Appreciation), the pioneers on the frontier of Vietnam’s nascent alternative live music scene and the brains behind an annual music festival now into its third year. This is the club’s fourth international music festival but the first under the moniker of CAMA Festival. What remains the same is that you can expect a dizzying lineup of artists, this time from Vietnam, the US, France, Britain, Australia, Japan, the Philippines and China, performing on the day at Hanoi’s American Club. If you have made plans to be out of town, call your travel agent, cancel the hotel booking and prepare yourself for a veritable smorgasbord of musical delights. The newly-christened CAMA Festival is also the first in support of dance4life, the Dutch NGO, which “strives to stop the spread of HIV amongst young people through the mediums of dance and music”. With CAMA’s passionate and determined bid to keep bringing alternative music and top class international DJs to the capital, this is undoubtedly the perfect alliance for a great day of music, dancing and fund-raising. “Each member of CAMA has been here a long time and Vietnam has given a great deal to us, so we made the decision a long time ago to make the festivals charity events in
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order to give something back to the Vietnamese community,” explains Nick Greenfield, one quarter of the CAMA collective. “HIV continues to be a massive problem in Vietnam, and dance4life is focused on raising youth HIV awareness through music and dance, so there couldn’t be a better cause for us to support through the event,” adds Greenfield
pushing back HIV and AIDS.
Start dancing, stop AIDS The Dutch NGO dance4life is a dynamic international initiative, which actively involves and empowers young people all around the world to push back the spread of HIV and AIDS and the stigma and taboos that surround it. Every minute two young people are infected with HIV around the world. The group has reached more than 500,000 young people in 25 countries since kicking off in 2004, and now coordinates a global youth movement to take action in response to the epidemic. dance4life Vietnam has to date reached out to over 9,000 in-school youth, providing them with information, skills and tools to become actively involved in
Making a scene In the grand scheme of things, CAMA’s cause is certainly far less significant but the club deserves plenty of kudos for promoting alternative live music in Hanoi over the last five years. In a country where commercial pop acts rule the roost, and in a city with a very limited alternative scene, CAMA has been the lighthouse guiding a series of ultra hip international acts into town. In the last couple of years, Hanoi audiences have been treated to shows by Ratatat, one of the coolest electro bands in New York, Girl Talk, the extraordinary American mash-up artist, and Regurgitator, the Australia rock band fronted by Vietnamese-
Performing on the main stage at CAMA Festival 2010 will be (clockwise from top left on this page) Ngu Cung from Vietnam, Dengue Fever from Cambodia-US, Up Dharma Down from the Philippines, Queen Bee Sea Shark from China and Molice from Japan
Australian Quan Yeomans. Also, by promoting gigs where overseas acts get to rub shoulders with local musicians and DJs, CAMA is constantly introducing new music to both expats and Vietnamese music fans. “CAMA started out in 2005 as a DIY bar – basically somewhere for us to kick back and listen to the music we wanted to hear,” says Greenfield. “When we closed the bar we started doing parties as an interim measure and it worked so well we never stopped. We’ve brought more than
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HIV: The Facts and Figures Globally: Every minute two young people are infected with HIV and about 40 per cent of all new HIV infections take place amongst young people (below 25 years old). l 23 per cent of people living with HIV are under 25. In Vietnam, according to the Ministry of Health: l In 2009, the number of people living with HIV (all ages) was estimated at 243,000. l The number of people living with HIV between 15-49 was estimated at 211,025 in 2009 (0.43 per cent of the adult population, age 15-49) l Of all reported HIV infections, 64 per cent are young people under 29 years of age. l HIV infections have been reported in all 64 cities/ provinces. Quang Ninh province has the highest HIV prevalence, while Ho Chi Minh City has the highest number of reported HIV cases. l
The French reggae/ dancehall artist Charly B will play on the main stage before spinning discs in the Russian Standard All-day DJ tent
40 artists to Vietnam and it’s gotten to the stage now where we’re turning down new acts almost every week!” This time around you can expect some explosive performances from the Chinese electro-rock sensation Queen Sea Big Shark, The American-Khmer psych rockers Dengue Fever, the Tokyo-based indie merchants Molice, downbeat Manila four-piece Up Dharma Down and Australian electro-jazz fusion act Red Bantoo. Also joining the party will be French-Jamaican reggae/dancehall star Charly B, English MC Spikey T, local rock and hiphop stars Ngu Cung, Recycle and MC Kim, the Big Toe breakdance crew and DJs from around Asia and the world. It’s nothing less than a jaw dropping line up. One that even Greenfield has a hard time getting his head around. “We have an immensely diverse range of talent this year both on the main stage and in the DJ tent, with everything from local electronica, hip-hop and nu-metal to cuttingedge Beijing indie rock, French-
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Jamaican reggae/dancehall and Australian electro-jazz fusion – so we really don’t think there’s going to be a minute on the day that doesn’t offer something worth losing yourself in,” says Greenfield. Rock on The CAMA Festival is essentially the fourth incarnation of a series of international festivals – Hanoi International Music Festival, The Minsk 10th Anniversary and MAG Music Festival – events which have definitely helped put Vietnam on the map for a lot of international artists. “One of the great things about what we do is that every act we bring over goes home raving about their experience here and there’s a strong follow-on effect in terms of motivating other artists to come over – Vietnam is certainly still a frontier destination in many ways and the excitement that brings with it for the artists generally translates to great performances,” adds Greenfield. With all artists performing free of
charge, and the charitable support of Corona, Jim Beam, Russian Standard Vodka and official music TV station partner YAN TV, the CAMA Festival 2010 will kick off from 1pm on Saturday, May 8 at American Club, 19-21 Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi. Tickets cost VND200,000 in advance or VND300,000 on the door (just VND100,000 for students with valid ID). Check out www.cama festival.com for more details.