Inspired by the recent incredibly successful spin-off editions of Asiavision I and II, which drew so many participants, the four of us: anaraqueen, DaFlo, DenizESC and SaladBreak, came to the idea of creating a contest which would promote artists and songs from the regions of the world which are usually underrepresented and often underrated.
We are all active members of this forum and have the motivation and a lot of experience in online contests, while one of us is a former mod. What motivated us the most was the amount of support Asiavision received while being voted in as the next spin-off, attendance in the plug.dj listening sessions and the positive reactions the songs got from the members, most of whom were commenting on how interesting all the songs were and expressing wishes for an actual contest like that to be able to further explore this world. This rising interest in the exceptional Asian music scene is the perfect opportunity to create a new community here and have all of us discover the glory together.
Therefore, finally, we present you the concept for a brand new, original contest – Orient Matsuri
Our new Orient Festival!
Here we can discuss this idea and we would love to hear your take on it, would you like to participate? ^^
To join the contest, you must submit your application on the ‘OM: Participation Thread ’ thread with the given form.
Each participant can select any country inside the Orient Broadcasting Area (see map) as their representative.
Every country can be represented by 1 member at a time.
Every member is allowed to promote their songs through their own green room. Different from the usual green rooms; the Orient Matsuri green rooms will be a personal green rooms, not one based on country.
Members can move around the nations every edition.
There is a max of 32 members per edition (for now).
There can only be a max of 8 associate members every edition - 5 from Africa, 3 from Europe
The ‘Big 6’ nations with the biggest music industries in the ‘Orient’ world (China, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and Turkey) can only be a nation of a single user for 5 editions in a row, this to prevent users from monopolizing nations. Orient Matsuri is meant to be a place to discover new music after all.
The associate countries also have to be switched every 5 editions for at least 1 edition.
Voting:
The country with the most amount of points wins Orient Matsuri.
You can not vote on your own country.
The voting will be Eurovision style
Votes must be sent through PM to the host or co-host(s)/assisting-host(s)
All countries must vote in the edition or they’re automatically disqualified.
Entries:
Each country can select their entries internally or through a National Matsuri (Festival)
The entrant is eligible when they are (partially) from that country or live(d) there and have gained the majority of their success in the broadcasting area.
Entries can be of any duration and from any year.
Features are allowed if the main vocalist is eligible for their country and at least 50% of the artists are from the broadcasting area.
Cover songs are allowed to be sent in the contest.
Cover songs can ‘re-enter’ the contest after 30 editions.
Hosting:
The winning contestant of the previous edition will receive hosting rights.
Every host will have to prepare a show with f.e. (but not limited to) banners that are linked with the song URLs and a results show. The hosts receive full creative freedom.
One edition consists of the entry submission period (7 days) and the voting period (10 days).
Every edition has two live listening parties on plug.dj. The first one the day after the entry submission deadline and the second one two days before the voting deadline.
The results show should be held in the following two days after the voting deadline.
The host can ask for help from the moderators and/or can pick a co-host to help them out.
Future proof:
Members are allowed to present new ideas to continue improving Orient Matsuri. OM encourages their members to use their voice.
To change rules we will have a user or moderator based referendum, a majority will lead to a ‘constitution’ change. Moderators can refuse to implement user-referendums if they believe it is not of best interest for the future of the contest.
Best of luck guys - wish you every success, but I don't think I'd enough time or material for another contest like this. I know there will be a lot of people excited for this though
I am 8 years on the forum and all this time people wanted Asiavision like contest, so its finally happening
However as i said already to guys my personal opinion, i have some thoughts about it:
Imo name should be more clear and understandable for everyone (i know this places in contest section etc but it doesnt matter), as Matsuri is something majority doesn't know without googling so when name mentioned you don't really get what they talk about. It means festival (also in rules you mention this word all time as well), so i think its more logical and clear to have name like Oriental Festival
(English speakers pleast correct me if am wrong but Oriental is more correct then Orient)
Also associated countries from Europe and Africa is a bit eh as if we really want new different contest, counties we are used to see everywhere shouldn't be here. I think best option is have only Oriental (Asian countries) so its really differs to everything else we have
The Participation thread should be up soon, it exists but needs to be approved right now just like most of the contest.
This thread is needed to make sure the community (that is interested in taking part in the first place) likes the general idea of the contest and every other aspect of it and if so- If they would like to take part. This is for the admins to realize its potential.
The name is another thing for example, since it's a song contest on the Oriental world we decided to call it Orient Matsuri
or OM in short, Matsuri meaning festival in Japanese, we thought since it's Asian based contest it's best for it to have a fitting name as well. It's under the contests section and the four of us agreed (anaraqueen, DaFlo, SaladBreak and myself) that English is not the only language in the world and it's still very clear what the contest is about, it even has a short explanation right under it which could be edited as well. The Associate countries are there to add some variety, not to mention we decided to make the contest for the underappreciated countries in the first place and they very much belong there as well, Africa is not overrated in my eyes XD this is ofc our opinion but all suggestions are welcome.
Imo name should be more clear and understandable for everyone (i know this places in contest section etc but it doesnt matter), as Matsuri is something majority doesn't know without googling so when name mentioned you don't really get what they talk about. It means festival (also in rules you mention this word all time as well), so i think its more logical and clear to have name like Oriental Festival
(English speakers pleast correct me if am wrong but Oriental is more correct then Orient)
First off, thanks for bringing up some points, so we at least have something to discuss. The point above isn't much of a problem to me, but it kind of works its way into the following:
Also associated countries from Europe and Africa is a bit eh as if we really want new different contest, counties we are used to see everywhere shouldn't be here. I think best option is have only Oriental (Asian countries) so its really differs to everything else we have
The proposed distinction between associate members and eligible members seems somewhat random and perhaps not exactly placed in the way we should probably want it to be. I mean it's just arbitrary at best to draw a line through the Sahara like that. It seems as though the idea was to include Arabic countries, but then we should really include Chad, Niger, Mali and Mauretania while potentially keeping Ethiopia out.
I think for the sake of clarity we should probably just keep all European countries (except for the ones in two continents like Russia and Turkey obviously) out of this and make all African countries associates along with the different Oceanic states sans Oz and Kiwi. Question could be raised if associates are needed at all. Why was this system chosen? If this is Orientvision, why not just focus on the Orient?
I wondered when this was going to appear. It's an interesting concept for sure, although considering my knowledge on Asian music is in the gutter i'd find myself recycling songs i've sent elsewhere or having to do some sort of research which isn't too much of a big deal. I do agree with Uto on the point of the map. When looking I didn't understand why North Africa was fully eligible in an Asian based contest, although as he points it seems you were probaly trying to incorporate the Arabic countries, which in that case Ethiopia, South Sudan & Eritrea should be associate members while Mauritania becomes a full member. While on Associate members, I'm sure as to the reason for them European countries, but I think it would be better to allow the continent as a whole (minus Anglosphere I guess) or none at all. However in that I feel there might be some bitterness if an 'associate' member ends up wnning. I also think parts of Oceania should be also (or even full members) as in the Asian eurovision they are full members. I also agree on the point with Yaro about the name, I don't mind so much the Oriental but I think the Matsuri makes it feel more of an East Asian based rather than Asian. I think it would be worth considering changing that Festival or something like it. I do like you've got a big 6 thing though and I like the idea of changing every edition so we're not stuck in one place, however I think it might be worth lowering it to 3, rather than 5. Purely because we can move every edition, I doubt someone will be as quick as to snap up any of them countries 5 editions in a row.
Good luck with it though, I'm interested to see how this plays out for all of you. The spin off was super popular both times, so I'm sure you'll get a decent following from it.
Not even joking cause who else is going to provide you with five bald Turkish men in a row before murdering whoever's perched on Japan to continue their Orient Matsuri (I love this name btw) slayage?
All other destinations would require brain and research time (two things I don't have right now) on my part so this is very important for the future of the game.