For four nights from 12 to 16 December 2024, Polygon unleashed an exquisite programme and a whole suite of technical upgrades on Wonderfruit 2024. This was our fifth time at Wonderfruit, the warm, soulful, holistic festival that takes place in Chonburi, Thailand, every year — and it was everything we hoped it would be.
Polygon has its origins at Wonderfruit. It was here in 2018 that we came to life in our current incarnation, and returning to this space and to its joyful Wonderers always feels like the best way to close off the year. Together with Visual System, the French art collective responsible for our design and lighting at Wonderfruit, we use every year as an opportunity to take things further — 2024 saw a serious step up in how we do things.
A vast and varied line-up of artists
“This year’s programming featured a greater diversity of performers, many of whom were newcomers to the Polygon stage,” says Polygon CEO Nico Elliott. “Self-described Thai folktronica group Nisitiwa brought with them a host of live instruments, as did Anna Sato x Toshiyuki Sasaki, whose set featured live drums, classical Japanese instruments and vocals. Price Fatty delivered a deliciously groovy reggae set and Photay performed with the Tuvan throat-singing ensemble Huun-Huur-Tu to a captivated audience.”
We were also delighted to welcome a number of artists who have played on the Polygon stage before, including Viken Arman, Photay, Ground, Âme, Kyong Sono, Kaho and Anja Bang. Stimming and Judith Ahrends also returned, having recently performed at Full Cycle, the concert series we hosted with The Other Side at the Amsterdam Dance Event in October. And Halina Rice gave her debut Polygon performance — she’ll be back as part of Polygon Live LDN in May 2025.
What’s more, an overwhelming majority of Polygon’s four-day line-up performed live — out of a total of 31 artists, 20 were live, more than ever before.
Levelling up technically
The 360° spatial audio system our audiences experience is always getting tweaked and fine-tuned. Our engineers are limited only by the laws of physics in terms of what they do — and even then, they try to stretch these laws from time to time. We’re always trying to ensure that the listening experience for our audience is the best it can possibly be.
This year, however, some of our most substantial audio upgrades took place behind the scenes. On stage, we had spatial monitoring for the first time — not only for our artists, but for our sound engineers, too. This meant that they could experience the full spatial effects of the music and make subtle changes in real time. As Kyong Sono said: “One thing that really set this year apart from last year was the spatialised monitoring! Being able to hear how things were flying around was loads of fun and so much more of an immersive experience while playing.”
Visual System also wowed audiences with Saman, their goosebump-inducing sound and light show.
Thank you to everyone who made Wonderfruit 2024 what it was this year. To everyone who joined us on the dance floor and followed along online; to our artists, whose music is the glue that holds this whole thing together; to Wonderfruit and to our incredible crew — thank you. We’ll be back for our first UK show in London in May.
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