On 21 May, the final list of bands who made it through the Baybeats Budding Bands 2019 programme was announced on social media. After gruelling auditions for the Long List and the Short List, six bands are now set to play at the Baybeats music festival itself in August. The Final List sees cues, Summations, The New Modern Lights, No Rest For The Weary, Plate, and Cinnamon Persimmon poised to each play a coveted 30-minute set during the festival. 

The six bands battled 26 others to make it out on top. We reached out to each of them for their thoughts on being able to play at this year's iteration of the Baybeats music festival. Check out what they had to say below. 

cues:

It’s incredibly humbling and an honour to be able to play Baybeats right after the amazing opportunity to be in the recent Noise music mentorship programme. We are looking forward to meeting more people, growing as a band and experiencing the coming months leading up to Baybeats!

Check out cues on Instagram.

Summations:

The band is thrilled to be a part of this programme and see it as a milestone. The mentorship looks very promising. We’re also excited to be playing some new material, and we look forward to just having a ball of a time.

Check out Summations on Instagram.

The New Modern Lights: 

We're extremely honoured to be playing Baybeats this year. We've been huge fans of the festival since we started this band and got into the local music scene, so the whole thing is still pretty surreal to us. We’re grateful for the opportunity to play our songs on a bigger stage, which is something we haven't done before and something we’re certainly looking forward to.

Check out The New Modern Lights on Instagram.

No Rest For The Weary:

We are shocked and beyond words! This is our second time trying, and finally, we got this golden chance. After being a band for 11 years, this has been the greatest news ever! We are honoured! Thank you for this opportunity, Baybeats. We are thrilled and we look forward to performing at one of Singapore's best music event of the year. 

Check out No Rest For The Weary on Instagram.

Plate:

Ever since we sent in our demo to them this year, we really wanted to make the cut. There were honestly many bands with a lot of potential that went through the audition process, and we're sad that some bands we like didn't make it, but we're incredibly thankful to have made the cut. Working with the Baybeats team has been a really enjoyable process so far and it feels awesome to be on the road to Baybeats. 

Check out Plate on Instagram.

Cinnamon Persimmon:

Getting into the Baybeats Budding Bands programme came as quite a surprise to us, as a relatively nascent band. So far, the journey's been an emotional rollercoaster that we're extremely excited to ride out. We're eternally grateful to the judges for having faith in us, and the other bands in the scene who have been so encouraging and welcoming to us. We hope that this platform will allow our music to surprise and titillate a bigger audience. 

Check out Cinnamon Persimmon on Instagram.

The Baybeats Festival 2019 is set to take place from 23 to 25 August 2019.