James Reid’s Careless Music brings Coachella feels to Cebu with Wavy Baby

CEBU, Philippines — Several music events are set to take place next month with the Sinulog Festival’s comeback set in stone. Careless Music, the music label and entertainment company founded by actor-singer James Reid, wants to take part in the weekend celebration with Wavy Baby, their first-ever music festival.

“Music is always supposed to be a reflection of the culture, so we knew we needed to be part of the biggest cultural festival of the Philippines which is Sinulog,” Jeffrey Oh, Careless CEO, said during a December 17 press conference at the Twilight Roofdeck Lounge + Bar at Bai Hotel, in Mandaue City. Joining him and Reid in the media event were Careless talents Massiah, Issa Pressman, August Waah, and Jolianne, the latter an artist from Cebu.

The Marreco Lot, the open area beside the hotel, is where the Wavy Baby Music Festival will take place on January 13 & 14 with a stacked line-up featuring Pinoy and international artists that includes Reid himself, the aforementioned Careless artists including Destiny Rose, as well as Pinksweat$, JVKE, Manila Grey, Ben&Ben, December Avenue, K-pop artists Sunmi, Bambam, and The Rose. Cebu-based artists Cookie$, Mandaue Nights, The Sundown, Sepia Times, Three-Legged Men, and Wonggoys will also be among the featured acts.

Reid feels a special connection to Cebu, calling the province one of his favorite places to visit. “I used to come here at least once a month to visit some of my friends. Everything from the food to the beaches, traveling, the music, and the nightlife – the culture is so rich here,” he says.

Why launch a music festival during the Sinulog weekend? “Our dream for Wavy Baby is that we want this Sinulog weekend to be like the Coachella of Southeast Asia,” Oh said. “We wanted this festival to be part of something great and meaningful, which is Sinulog.”

When they pitched the event to the international artists, Careless compared Sinulog to other globally well-known street festivals.

“When we explained about Wavy Baby Festival and Sinulog, they sounded excited to come to Cebu and experience a kind of Mardi Gras street festival,” Reid said of the renowned cultural and religious annual festival. “It sounded amazing to them so it wasn’t difficult to get them onboard.”

What helped organizers secure the international artists’ nod to perform in Wavy Baby was that they were already friends with them.

“The most important part when you do a musical project is that it has to be organic and natural. You can’t pick a bunch of people, put them on stage and make sure it works,” Oh explained. “We already have working relationships with some of them, like The Rose who are good friends of ours and they have collaborated with James.”

For Bambam specifically, the K-pop idol already visited Cebu last July for a fan event. According to Oh, the enthusiastic reception from Bambam’s Cebuano fans was one of the reasons the GOT7 member decided to return.

“When Bambam, a good friend of ours, came here a couple of months ago, Cebu showed a lot of love to him so we asked Bambam if he wants to go back and perform in Wavy Baby,” added Oh.

Wavy Baby’s diverse line-up was made to reflect the music tastes of Filipinos, which ranges from pop, rock, R&B, K-pop, hip-hop, and more.

“We really wanted a line-up that reflects what Wavy Baby is: a two-day awesome music festival that has something for everybody and represents Cebu and the Philippines,” Oh continued.

This goes back to Careless’ ethos of fostering progressive music and talent.

“Careless is an entertainment company from the Philippines that really wants to represent what music is right now, and hopefully what music will be in the future,” Oh said. “I think the line-up is a reflection of that and we are really excited for Wavy Baby.”

The festival had been in the works since October 2021. Even if Sinulog 2022 had happened, Careless wouldn’t have had the ideal scenario to execute their vision.

Oh remarked, “Imagine wearing a face mask and face shield with social distancing and presenting a 15 percent in-person festival – how stupid and crazy that sounds.”

With protocols now loosened, they expect the festival to have 10,000-15,000 in attendance. Security is a high priority for the organizers as they want to avoid what happened at the tragic Halloween stampede in South Korea, Oh’s home country.

“Our budget for security and medical tents is big and we have strict screening upon entering the festival,” Oh said as he apologized to festival-goers in advance for the strict, but necessary security protocols they will put in place.

“I hope they understand that it is for their safety as we want to create a world-class event,” Oh said. “And part of having a world-class event is world-class security and crowd control.”

Reid wants to make sure that Wavy Baby becomes a global music event that will eventually be at par with Western music fests, while still sticking to its Filipino roots.

“We want to create a music festival that people didn’t experience before in Cebu,” said Reid. “We want to feel international, yet still feel very Filipino.”

Oh added that they “really want to represent the Philippines hard” with Wavy Baby. “We are telling our partners in the US and South Korea that it is going to be one of the greatest stages they performed in,” he shared.

With ambitions of bringing a Coachella-like festival in Southeast Asia through Wavy Baby in Cebu, Careless Music hopes to entice more international artists in future editions.

Oh and Reid told The FREEMAN that they would love to have American alternative R&B singer-rapper Frank Ocean perform in the next Wavy Baby.

“That was my original plan, but things didn’t work out that way”, Reid revealed, adding that he wanted to bring the Bruno Mars-Anderson.Paak super duo Silk Sonic as well.

“That’s why we want to do Wavy Baby [first]. If we do well, the possibilities are endless.”