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Future Music Festival Asia: ‘The show must go on,’ says organiser

SINGAPORE — The organiser of the Future Music Festival Asia (FMFA) has filed an appeal with authorities after their second application for an event permit was rejected.

Screengrab of Future Music Festival Asia 2015's logo.

Screengrab of Future Music Festival Asia 2015's logo.

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SINGAPORE — The organiser of Future Music Festival Asia (FMFA) has filed an appeal with authorities after their second application for an event permit was rejected.

In a Facebook post today (March 5), Livescape said: “At the moment we have gone up to the highest level to appeal for the festival to proceed. No final decision has been made as yet and we urge you to stay calm and have faith.”

“Regardless, the show must go on.”

Livescape, which has sold about 15,000 of the 20,000 tickets available for the two-day festival, submitted applications for a public entertainment licence to the police in January and again last month, but were rejected both times, with the Police citing “serious concerns” over potential drug abuse at the event.

The event was previously held in Kuala Lumpur. Last year, the concert organiser had to cancel the event on the third day after six Malaysians died of drug overdose and another 16 people were hospitalised for durg-related reasons.

Several Singaporeans were also hospitalised after a suspected drug overdose.

Referring to the incidents in Malaysia last year, the organiser added on their Facebook post: “Isolated incidents which happened outside of Singapore cannot and do not carry any implication that FMFA is in any way linked to drug use nor is it any indication that there will be drug abuse at the event.”

To allay concerns of fans and ticket holders, it said they were “working relentlessly around the clock” to address the issue adding that an update will be provided in 48 hours.

“FMFA firmly stands behind our goal of creating a drug-free event for our festival goers to enjoy, and we are working with the best international organisations in the world with a combined 50 years of experience working on similar events to ensure that this is the case,” said Livescape.

(Screengrab of statement from the FMFA Facebook page)

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