Bangkok International Bonding Festival?

By Tee Yu

“Music draws people together,” Conductor Dr. Matthew Arau from Wisconsin said, as two-hundred students from schools in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and India listened closely. 

Once a year, ten selected students from each school get to audition for a band trip called BIBF: Bangkok International Band Festival. But maybe students are actually auditioning for the Bangkok International Bonding Festival. 

Driving to dinner after we landed in Bangkok, Jing Xuan Leow (12) expressed that she was most excited about “collaborating with other schools at the festival.” 

A lot of us were excited to make music with new people from different schools. BIBF is a band trip that usually occurs once every year, so making new friends and reuniting with friends is always something that students look forward to. 

During the festival, Aiden Kinchington (11), a student from Raffles American School in Johor said, “One memory I won’t forget is being with the people that I met along the way.” 

In between practices, we had fifteen-minute breaks where students from the different schools would search for an old friend that they met from previous trips, including the ACSC trip in Hong Kong and the Honor Band trip to Raffles American School. Lunch break was also a popular time for people to build friendships. Students from different schools would sit together and talk about anything from music, to ambitions, to sports. 

After eight hours of practice with other students, it was time to perform the music for the audience. There were so many students and parents filling the concert hall, that some people were standing at the back of the auditorium. The concert was also live streamed for those wanting to watch it overseas. 

As the band played the last note of the concert, we all felt the same feeling of accomplishment. It is no easy task to unite two-hundred people to play one piece of music in two days. But it isn’t the music that we remember this trip by. 

Emily Coniglio (11) from International School of Bangkok, where the festival is hosted, said that her favorite part about BIBF was “meeting new people and being able to play with over two-hundred people.” 

Walking out of the concert hall, students scrambled to exchange contacts and goodbyes, hoping that they would make the auditions for the next trip.