Style and humour are two aptitudes that don’t often go hand in hand.
Anna Wintour doesn’t seem like the kind of person who’d make you piss yourself, at least not in an enjoyable way. Before normcore became thing, Jerry Seinfeld was potentially the daggiest-dressed person in Hollywood.
That’s why when Kai Suteja, more commonly known as @urmumsyadad, started posting homemade movies and shorts that were as aesthetically-pleasing as they were funny to the ‘gram, people took notice.
He strikes a unique balance between taking the piss out of fashion, all the while loving himself sick in I Am Gia. He’ll joke about veganism, but you’d better believe he’s practicing it. He’ll talk candidly about intrusive thoughts, a mental health issue he genuinely suffers from, and somehow make it relatable, and dare we say, funny.
With a combined following of over 350K across Insta and FB, the 23-year-old funnyman is a veritable force in the Australian content creation scene.
And now he’s turned his sights towards starting up a legit festival, and for his debut, he’s going big.
International big.
Bali big.
Gypsy Lands Music & Art Festival is going down in Seminyak on July 21st, with Suteja promising it’ll be a doof-style celebration combining “kombucha and techno”:
PEDESTRIAN.TV got the now Bali-based Suteja on the blower to get the 411 on how it’s all coming along, what punters can expect when they purchase a ticcie and why he reckons Gypsy Lands will become the next big international hoe down.
Hello Kai. How are ya? What’s plans for today?
Not bad. What time is it here… it’s 8:46AM.
I’m gonna go film Mum today for an upcoming Mother’s Day video. People always wonder who I turned out and it’s maybe because of my Mum. She’s a weapon.
For anyone who hasn’t heard of you, can you explain how you came to be so popular on the ‘gram?
In 2016, my buddy and roommate Luca was studying film at AFTRS and I was just watching what he was making and thinking, “this looks heaps of fun” and we started to fuck around together.
I had 20 videos on my Insta or something, then I uploaded them all on Facebook in one night. I woke up the next day and they had gone psycho.
My primary income is that [making videos and collaborating with brands, including General Pants, Adidas, Factorie & Champion, among others]. But I’m not gonna buy a house with that, so I decided I needed to do something else. Cue Gypsy Lands.
Givvus your Gypsy Lands elevator pitch.
Gypsy Lands is a festival where good verses evil.
It’s an immersive, interactive environment; it’s more than music.
We’ve got a half pipe where you can break your bones. There’s a thunder dome people can fight in. There’s a bit where you can get tattoos and piercings. There’s a fetish room. This is all in ‘The Bandlands’, the naughty side.
Then there’s ‘The Wonderlands’, and that’s glitter, butterflies, kombucha. There’s a disco chapel and in order to enter, you need to kiss someone.
There’s a maze that connects the two areas, and you need to traverse it to get between.
What kind of music will be playing?
It’s a techno thing.
Dark, Berghain shit in The Bandlands, minimal tech house in The Wonderlands.
The DJs include a bunch of guys from Australia who have done Strawberry Fields, Rainbow Serpent and Let Them Eat Cake. There’s four of those dudes. Then we have some people from China and Amsterdam. The interesting thing with China is it’s fully Communist, so they don’t really have social media.
How did you find him if he doesn’t have social media?
That’s the thing, one of my friends builds festival stages, and he’s super into the scene, so he knows a little about the underground scene. This Chinese DJ works at a club over there called Tag, and it’s a full on techno club that’s renowned for music. I don’t think he speaks English so I don’t think I’ll be able to talk to him.
Why did you choose Bali as the location for Gypsy Lands?
Literally because there’s no regulations.
If I wanted to do this in Australia, the amount of paperwork I’d have to go through is insane.
Also, I’m half Balinese, my family have a few businesses over here, so we know how it all works.
My mum has a cafe and a bar, the bar is called Pretty Poison, which is the most non-regulated place ever. There’s a skate pool in the bar, and the only regulation is a chalk board that says ‘skate at your own risk’.
Are you scared that someone will get hurt?
Nah. It’s fun to joke about it but we have a whole security team that came in yesterday to suss out everything. Everything is still getting built, you can keep updated if you follow our Insta.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bhng1e5Hr87/?taken-by=gypsylandsfestival
Who are you working on this with?
It’s me, and actually it’s a funny as story, there was this kid I went to kindergarten with in Bali before I moved to Australia, we were best friends. I didn’t see him for 20 years, then I came back to Bali and he ran into me, and he’s like, “Are you Kai?” and he goes, “I’m Putu, we went to kindergarten together.”
We started talking about the festival and he mentioned he had land. Then we started location scouting and we found this one place that was perfect. It’s in Seminyak; about 100m to the right of La Plancha.
There’s so much building and construction in Seminyak, but this is the only big, vacant piece of land in the area.
We’re also tossing up between sponsors at the moment. We’re trying to get Marlboro to sponsor it. How good would it be having a cigarette brand sponsor a vegan event? Maybe Bintang too.
What should people wear? Have you decided on an outfit yet?
For The Bandlands, the theme is ‘post-apocalyptic sinner’. Then for the Wonderlands, it’s ‘off with the fairies’.
I don’t have my outfit sorted yet, but we’re good friends with Dyspnea, so I’d love for them to make me something. I’ll wear something insane, but it’ll be really hot [weather-wise].
What are your big plans for Gypsy Lands in the future?
I wanna do two festivals a year, then eventually do a three day festival in Bali.
There’s quite a big expat community here, so I think for the debut there’ll be about a 1,000 local people. I wanna get 5,000 people in total. July is peak season in Bali, and it’s also the same day as Splendour, ironically.
How much are tickets?
Tickets are $30. Super cheap.
We, for one, cannot wait to see how it goes.
