Privately owned Dropzone Entertainment Co is spending more than 100 million baht to set up "Dropzone Festival Bangkok 2018", a world-class music festival aimed at placing Thailand squarely on the map as a new destination for international music events.
The event, a partnership of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and Thai AirAsia, is expected to attract more than 20,000 music lovers from around the world and generate at least 100 million baht in revenue for the country.
Melanie Tantiwanich, executive producer of Dropzone Entertainment, said electronic music festivals have become popular in the past three years, with average annual growth of 60% globally.
"Thailand's market has potential and is ready for such an event, especially an international music festival," Ms Melanie said.
She said the tech-integrated Dropzone Festival Bangkok will pave the way for bigger music events later.
The festival will take place on March 2 and 3 this year at Wonder World Extreme Park on Ram Intra Road.
Ms Melanie said the freshness and uniqueness of the music event will come from seamlessly incorporating video games, movies and music.
She said Dropzone plans to host an annual music festival in Bangkok on a continuous basis over the next five years.
With support from the TAT and Thai AirAsia, as well as many private organisations, the organising team believes that the Dropzone Festival will be a key strategy to attract more tourists to Thailand and make the country a vital destination for international music festivals.
The music festival will be managed by a technology team from Europe, Switch Audiovisuals, the brains behind the success of Sonar Barcelona, in collaboration with Ledscontrol, an award-winning production design team, among other partners.
Ms Melanie said that what sets Dropzone Festival apart as a fresh form of entertainment is its combination of the music festival model with video game elements and beautiful cinematic content.
She said Dropzone Festival in future years will elevate the festival experience even further, with tech integration and more methods of enjoyment in terms of interacting with entertainment.