Future Music Asia “looking at options” after Singapore ban

Update: Promoter Livescape has announced that Future Music Asia is now officially cancelled and ticket money would start to be refunded from today.

Future Music Asia is “looking at options” after the Singapore Government turned down its application to hold the festival there for the first time.

It was to have been held on March 13 and 14 at the Changi Exhibition Centre with headliners including Avicii, The Prodigy, Fat Boy Slim and Afrojack.

Over 15,000 tickets had already been sold for Future Music Festival Asia 2015 (FMFA15), according to promoter Livescape Singapore. About 20,000 had been expected to attend.

FMFA15 had already twice had its application for a public entertainment licence rejected, first on January 29 and then again on February 27. It had put forward a plan boosting the safety, security and medical management to appease any concerns by the Ministry. The number of closed-circuit television cameras on site were to be increased to 33 from six last year.

But last Friday, the Ministry announced its third and final rejection. Livescape said it was “very disappointed” with the decision. It said in a statement, “In light of this development, we are assessing all options and formulating our next course of action. Full details of this will be made available over the next few days.”

Singapore had been concerned about possible drug abuse at the festival. It did not want a repeat of last year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, when six people died due to suspected overdoses and 16 hospitalised. The third day of the event was cancelled as a result.

Livescape called the Malaysian dramas “isolated incidents that took place outside Singapore, which cannot and do not carry any implication that FMFA is linked to drug use or drug abuse”.

Senior minister of state for the Ministry of Home Affairs Masagos Zulkifli said in a speech in parliament on Friday that authorities were "keeping an eye" on music events due to concern that young Singaporeans were dabbling more in drugs. However, earlier figures from the Ministry of Home Affairs indicated that drug abuses slipped by 14% last year from 2013.

How this crack-down affects Singapore’s plans to be a major music city, especially as an EDM hub, remains to be seen.

In Australia, media reported recently that police confiscated 7,500 ecstasy pills which they believed were headed for Future Music’s Brisbane show, and that 60 attendees at the Sydney show were found with illegal drugs.

Image: Future Music Festival Asia website