TOMORROWLAND – one of the world's biggest electronic music festivals held in Belgium – has finally returned after a two-year break owing to the covid19 pandemic, and festival-goers will get a taste of Trinidad and Tobago's flavour as local producer Keshav Chandradath Singh will be performing.
Singh is half of the production and percussion duo Jus Now, creating timeless soca hits such as Bunji Garlin's Big Bad Soca and Truck on D Road, and Junction by Machel Montano. He also recently began exploring the vocal side of the music industry, releasing singles and an EP titled Attraction.
[caption id="attachment_965826" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Festival-goers enjoy Tomorrowland 2019 in Belgium. Photo courtesy Tomorrowland press. -[/caption]
Tomorrowland features artistes across various subgenres of electronic music such as house, trance, techno, drum and bass, etc.
This year, it is scheduled for three weekends (July 15-17, 22-24 and 29-31) and will feature major electronic music stars such as Tiesto, Armin Van Buuren, Hardwell, Martin Garrix, Major Lazer, Nervo, Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike, among others.
A total of 700 main artistes will be performing across 14 stages and all 600,000 tickets are sold out.
Keshav told Newsday that Tomorrowland has actually been on his festival bucket list so he's excited about it.
In 2019, he produced the Badang! riddim with his friend, Belgian DJ Mr Rakka. The riddim featured Montano, Bunji, Olatunji, Ricardo Drue and Kevin Lyttle.
Rakka is often referred to as Belgium's soca ambassador as he promotes TT's music and culture, and invited Singh to join him at the festival.
[caption id="attachment_965825" align="alignnone" width="1024"] TT producer Keshav, left, alongside Belgian DJ Mr Rakka. -[/caption]
"This was a possibility before the pandemic and it didn't actually happen because the pandemic happened, and it was up in the air whether Tomorrowland would happen or not and Rakka wanted to bring me along. This time, when it came around, they asked about the guy who he wanted to bring so I lucked out in that regard."
In addition to drumming and bringing a TT-styled rhythm section vibe to the stage, Keshav will be performing some of his newest vocal tracks.
"It's a really interesting first opportunity for me to be on a big international festival stage for the first time, and its my international debut as a vocalist as well."
[caption id="attachment_965824" align="alignnone" width="1000"] Belgian DJ Mr Rakka -[/caption]
He said he "really believes" in Rakka and that he's "100 per cent an ambassador for our culture.
"To have somebody here on the ground and playing (at) these kind of festivals, clubs, gigs – it's something that spreads and widens our music's influence.
"I feel very happy and excited about it and I'm just gassed as an artiste to come and be able to go on a stage and to flatten a Tomorrowland crowd, Trini style."
Keshav and Rakka will be performing on the Radio Ultra Modern stage at 1 pm TT time on July 24 and at 9 am TT time on July 31.
