We’re so sorry, the Guinness spokesperson starts, for dragging you out on a yatch in the middle of the week to have a couple of beers. And then we all laugh. It’s my first time on a yatch and boy oh boy what a yatch- it’s about four or five storeys high and has three huge bedrooms. I’m not quite sure if it’s supposed to be a boat or a house on water.

Last wednesday, I attended the press launch party of this year’s Guinness Arthur’s Day celebration on a luxury yatch departing from one degree 15 marina. Today, i thought to myself, I know luxury. But more on track- the Guinness x Ogilvy team was sharing with us their plans for the upcoming Guinness Arthur’s Day festives, which is highly exclusive this year with only 1,759 tickets which have to be won- and they’re taking the ‘money cant buy experience’ saying quite literally this year, they’re not going on sale at all. In a nutshell, you can either enter their photo competition online (take a pic with a guinness and your friends, upload, you know the drill) or participate in their on the ground activation activities around singapore. All that information is available here.

What I’m more interested in, though, is this: as a huge music event, Guinness x Ogilvy is looking not only to bring in international rock band The Fray, but at giving back to the local music scene. This year, Guinness is giving one local band the opportunity to open for The Fray. Run and tell that. It’s a huge, huge, incredible opportunity of a lifetime, and i can imagine it’d be a dream for any local band, so i’m really psyched about this.

NEED TO KNOW:

Local bands (with all members aged 18 and above) are invited to submit a YouTube video link of themselves performing, in a private message to the GUINNESS Singapore Facebook page by 17 August 2013.

Shortlisted bands will play against each other Battle of the Bands style at one of four different dates/Timbre branches through August/Sept, with one winner determined each day via live voting.

Videos of the four finalists will be sent to The Fray and the winner will be personally selected by them.

And ta-da, winner band opens for them at the party on the 27th of September.

Besides the honor of being personally selected by The Fray and opening for them, the winning band takes away SGD2000 cash. All other competing bands get tickets to the concert (for them and their plus ones so they can bring their girl/boyfriends / take the opportunity to pull the hey, i have two tickets to a concert… pick up line), and the four finalist bands get an additional SGD1000.

I’m actually really excited about this!!! Even though I’m not in a band myself or anything, i think this is an amazing opportunity for aspiring local musicians to really take off. You don’t even need to have experience to enter, it’s not like you have to have played at like five different gigs before or something. You could just be a really talented showerhead singer one day and BAM next day opening for one of the decade’s most popular bands. I love that Guinness x Ogilvy is doing this, and I’m so stoked! Excited by proxy and all that. If you know anyone in a band or any potential talents, please tell them. Literally, life changing.

Meanwhile, I’ll be at one of the tables enjoying a Guinness draught and some Timbre four cheese pizza watching the dreamers play. Mmmmm. Can’t wait.

x
♥jem