Being an introvert comes with a few caveats. And by caveats, I mean feeling the emotions of distress, vulnerability, and sometimes stickiness when I’m forced to concern myself with a stranger. It’s why I tend to avoid public settings like clubs and meeting a friend of a friend if I can help it. So when the opportunity to attend Wonderfruit Festival in Thailand arose, I made the sane, rational, and completely sound decision of saying… yes. Perhaps I was emboldened by the holiday spirit, body and soul, retrofitted with the benevolence of Saint Nicholas.
Whatever the reason, it didn’t take long for me to find myself on a two-hour flight to Bangkok, followed by an hour car ride to Chonburi, where the 10th anniversary of Wonderfruit was held. By now, you’ve probably gathered that Wonderfruit is a festival—there’s loud music, even larger crowds, and no shortage of glittery makeup. But what is it, really?
It’s only right to begin at the top: the music. A glance at the festival lineup will probably leave you looking as confused as I did. The likelihood of you recognising any of the acts playing is slim to zero—but that’s entirely intentional. This not only gives a platform to smaller artists, but prevents overcrowding at shows and allows you to discover new music while you’re at it. As you wander the 118-acre field at your own pace, you’ll hear everything from electronica to reggae, R&B to funk, and even hip-hop to traditional Thai music drift through the air. If not with big names, then what draws the annual flock of 25,000 people to the festival? The answer lies in everything else.
There are a few key pillars that make up Wonderfruit’s allure. Music sits at its core, and they make it apparent with the incredible stage designs on which the artists perform. Most notably, The Quarry features an otherworldly setup that completely transforms once smoke permeates the space, revealing intricate lights and lasers in the air that frame a blood moon in the sky. Think the infamous Eclipse from Berserk, but with the demons and sacrificial beings replaced by hypnotic electronica music instead.
Then you have everything else.
Sustainability isn’t just a marketing ploy to attract environmentalists; here, they take it dead seriously. Plastic bags, boba drinks, or takeout boxes are confiscated at the bag checks before you enter the festival. Drink vendors can’t sell you drinks if you don’t bring your own mug. Plates are made of paper, and utensils are made of wood.
Speaking of, there are over 100 food vendors spread across various villages, spanning countless cuisines. Burmese and Japanese fare, dino-sized beef ribs and yakisoba, oat milk ice cream and mango sticky rice—the works. Still, nothing quite compares to a warm bowl of beef soup at an ungodly hour, just before retiring into a cosy boutique tent with palm-leaf thatched roofs located just a short stroll away from the chaos.
But if a good night’s rest on a proper bed with air conditioning and amber lighting still isn’t enough to rejuvenate the body and soul, the festival offers other remedies. Wonderfruit by day is completely different from Wonderfruit by night. When the sun is out and the leaves are still dripping with dew, many spaces are converted into wellness zones. Think tea ceremonies, yoga mobility classes, ice baths, sound healing, impulse therapy, and the like. This versatility is what lends the festival a certain flexibility that allows it to accommodate not just your typical festival-goer, but also health nuts, food lovers, children, and even dogs.
This theme of wellness carries itself consistently all over the festival via art installations scattered across the grounds. Steel sculptures, contemporary works, visual and auditory experiences, and bus-converted-galleries. Most of them are interactive and weave themselves perfectly into the experience. The bus gallery, for example, is open 24/7 and allows people to lounge atop its roof with deck chairs and a cold pint. If nothing, these installations serve as delightful landmarks that help maintain your sense of direction (though they didn’t do much to maintain mine).
Art, by the way, shows itself through architecture as well. Baan Bardo is a venue characterised by a maze of kinetic configurations on the ceiling that rise and fall, creating a multisensory space that literally shapeshifts as you step to the music.
For something more grounded and closer to nature, there’s the Forest Stage with Defender. Designed by Jiro Endo, the stage is tucked deep within the embrace of the Ancestral Forest and constructed entirely from flora. Tree trunks from the fields make up the stage, while tong tung leaves form its thatched roof, creating an experience more intimate than its larger counterparts. Just a stone’s throw away is a lounge serving drinks, alongside a showcase of Defender cars—old (the Land Rover Series I) and new (the 25MY Defender 110).
The Defender 110, by the way, is an integral cog in the operation of the festival. It’s part of a fleet of Defender Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles responsible for transporting artists, personnel, and equipment across the fields, all the while keeping air pollution to a minimum.
But now onto the last pillar that served as a gateway for me to enjoy all the ones discussed thus far—the reason why this piece began with me outing myself as an introvert: the people. It’s sappy, yes. Trite, even. But alas, human connection prevails time and time again.
I half-expected to walk into a sundry of shirtless Caucasian men, either in flip flops or native American headgear. But in reality, I’d say a majority of the people who attended the festival were locals who either drove in from Bangkok or Pattaya. This, in turn, made Wonderfruit feel much more authentic and original, rather than a caricature of something popularised by the West.
Something about the open fields, surrounded by endlessly imaginative structures and lush greenery, seemed to unlock a primal instinct to connect and belong. Approaching another human suddenly didn’t cause such great distress, nor did it feel as sticky as it usually does. The round-the-clock music and the occasional swig of alcohol certainly helped, but it was the infectious energy of Wonderfruit that managed to pry this tough nut slightly ajar. Not bad at all for a virgin festival experience.
