Big Bang in Vietnam!

On Saturday April 14th, Saigon crystallized another step on its path towards becoming more international in scope. The largest live music festival in Vietnam was held at the Phu Tho Racecourse in District 11. The 9-hour long event, named Soundfest and brought to you by Coca-Cola, started with shows from local popular Vietnamese pop and metallica bands, and in the evening lent its way to headlining performances by the much renowned K-Pop group Big Bang (incredibly successful pop group in South Korea), Thai diva Tata Young, American Idol finalist Kimberly Caldwell, and ending with a bang with no other than the international star Taio Cruz himself.

An estimated 40,000 people attended the festival, most of which were Vietnamese teenagers with die-hard obsessions with K-Pop. So much that a few teens had fainted throughout the show from too much frenzy and overanxious excitement.

Before Big Bang came on stage, the show hosts had to systematically instruct the massive audience to take 10 steps backwards over the microphone, to give more space for the much anticipated craze. It took several attempts to get this implemented. As soon as Big Bang finished performing 6 hit songs and left the stage, hoards of audience members started streaming out of the festival, leaving us westerners dazed that they were not going to stay back for Taio Cruz, the leading international artist holding 8 awards and with more than 8 million albums sold worldwide!

A general audience ticket cost about $20, while a VIP ticket in a ring right in front of the stage cost the die-hard fans a hard-earned  2.2 million dong, about $110!