The fate of Future Music Festival Asia (FMFA), which is due to be held next week in Singapore, is hanging by a thread after being denied a public entertainment license by the local police authorities amidst drug abuse concerns. The younger brother of Australia’s popular Future Music Festival has promised to be a huge weekend of electronic and R&B megastars such as Avicii, The Prodigy and Fatboy Slim for festival goers.
In a statement issued to the press, event organiser Livescape Singapore Pte Ltd said:
“We are extremely disappointed that our appeal to the Ministry of Home Affairs to organise Future Music Festival Asia 2015 (FMFA15) in Singapore has been unsuccessful. We can confirm that we have received the official rejection of our appeal. FMFA firmly stands behind our goal of creating a drug-free event for our festival goers to enjoy. Despite having put in place a robust event, security, safety and medical management plan which has been developed alongside both local and international experts with a combined 50 years of experience in running similar large-scale events, our Public Entertainment License has not been granted. The plans that have been developed far exceeds international standards.
We emphasise that the safety and security of our festival goers are of utmost importance and will continue to be our number one priority. Regarding concerns the authorities may have about the drug-related incidents that took place in Malaysia last year, we reiterate that these were 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.
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.
To the fans there are no words in this world that can describe our eternal gratitude to you. We called, and you answered. Your response to #KeepFMFAAlive has brought tears to all of us at FMFA. We are humbled, and we are grateful.
In the last 48 hours you showed the world that music truly unites. Music has the ability to unite people from across different cultures, background and races. Music has the ability to forge unity, friendship and love. Music itself is noble. Music can be a change for good. And over the past 48 hours you have been a living testament to that very belief. We are doing everything we can to work out a viable solution to this issue.“
Meanwhile, Livescape is putting up an appeal to Singapore’s Minister for Home Affairs Teo Chee Hean. Ticket holders are still holding their breath.
