Laneway Announces Asian Debut

After branching out to New Zealand this year, the Laneway Festival makes its Asian debut in Singapore Jan. 29.

Australian band The Temper Trap will play only the Singapore date. But Warpaint, Yeasayer, Ladyhawke, !!!, Beach House, Deerhunter, Foals and Holy Fuck will play the festival as it moves on to Auckland (Jan. 31) and five Australian cities (Feb. 4-12).

Danny Rogers, who co-founded the festival with Michael Chugg, said, “We’ve been working on this for ages and we’re over the moon that everything lined up for 2011. We can’t wait to host Laneway at the stunning Fort Canning Park, easily one of the best, most unique locations in the city.”

The park has a capacity of 10,000.

Laneway was to make its Singapore debut this year but decided it needed more time to organize. It is the second Australian festival to play the island state.

In March, Bluesfest’s Peter Noble staged Singapore Rock ’N Roots with the Gipsy Kings, Buddy Guy, Buena Vista Social Club, Jools Holland and The Fray plus regional artists. It will return April 15-16.

The Singapore Sun Festival, which originated in Tuscany, drew 60,000 last year.

There are “tentative plans” for WOMAD to return in 2012, according to WOMAD Project Singapore’s regional operations director for Asia, Sarah Martin.