The Burapa Bikers Festival, held every mid February, is a week long collection of events culminating in the three day music extravaganza at the Chaiyapreuk Stadium arena, just outside Pattaya.
Initially, some of the earliest rock festivals were built on the foundation of pre-existing jazz and blues festivals, but quickly evolved to reflect the rapidly changing musical tastes of the time. For example, the United Kingdom’s National Jazz Festival was launched in Richmond during 1961. The first three of these annual outdoor festivals featured only jazz music, but by the fourth “Jazz & Blues Festival” in 1964, a shift had begun that incorporated some blues and pop artists into the lineup. In 1965, for the first time the event included more blues, pop and rock acts than jazz, and by 1966, when the event moved to the town of Windsor, the rock and pop acts clearly dominated the jazz artists.
In the United States, rock festivals seemed to spring up with a more self-defined musical identity. Preceded by several precursor events in the San Francisco area, the first two rock festivals in the US were staged in northern California on consecutive weekends in the summer of 1967: the KFRC Fantasy Fair & Magic Mountain Music Festival on Mount Tamalpais and the Monterey International Pop Festival.

The concept caught fire and spread quickly as rock festivals took on a unique identity and attracted significant media attention around the world. By 1969, promoters were staging dozens of them. According to Bill Mankin, in their dawning age rock festivals were important socio-cultural milestones. It would not be an exaggeration to say that, over a few short years, rock festivals played a unique, significant – and underappreciated – role in fueling the countercultural shift that swept not only America but many other countries during the 1960s. It seems fitting that one of the most enduring labels for the entire generation of that era was derived from a rock festival: the ‘Woodstock Generation’.
Reflecting their musical diversity and the then-common term ‘pop music’, for the first few years, particularly in the US, many rock festivals were called ‘pop festivals’. This also served to distinguish them among the ticket-buying public from other, pre-existing types of music festivals such as jazz and folk festivals. By the end of 1972, the term ‘pop festival’ had virtually disappeared as festival promoters adopted more creative, unique and location-specific names to identify and advertise their events.

Today, most music festivals are a big commercial commodity and years of experience are utilized to try to give the festival goer the best experience possible such as the annual three day event in Glastonbury U.K..
The Burapa festival here in the Pattaya area, is not only the biggest bikers meeting in S.E. Asia, but unique in it’s ability to be a free event with fun for all the family.
The upcoming 23rd event will be, once again, be self policed with many retailer stalls and original art on show all over the arena.
It’s probably the nearest to the ‘Woodstock’ experience that you will ever be able to attend with a carefully planned roster of Rock music acts on two stages over the course of the three days.
Additionally, there are so many different types of motor bikes on show plus many other attractions such as Native American horses, sometimes uniquely racing long nosed motor bikes around the arena.
We are blessed and so lucky to have the opportunity to go back to those hippie days of the late 60s and have our own ‘Woodstock’ here in the Pattaya area.
I personally always look forward to contributing by appearing on one of the stages, which I have done for the last seven years, especially when invited two years running to play guitar with Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal formerly of the iconic band ‘Guns & Roses’.

Don’t miss out and have a top music festival experience.