BARSTARS Festival (The Orientalist Spirits)

BARSTARS Festival — Event Photography

> Covering Asia's premier mixology gathering during the World's 50 Best Bars awards week in Singapore.

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The Event

The inaugural BARSTARS Festival brought 23 of Asia's most celebrated bartending talents together at Plume, Pan Pacific Singapore, during the World's 50 Best Bars awards week in October 2023. Presented by The Orientalist Spirits and organised by White Pony, with Perrier as official water partner, it was a single night that concentrated the best of the region's cocktail culture into one space.

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The Brief

Kickstack was engaged as photographer through Wun Studio, a Kuala Lumpur-based creative company handling videography coverage for the event. The brief was full event coverage — capturing the energy, the craft, the people, and the moments of the night as they happened.

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The Approach

Event photography at this level is reactive. The room is dim, the action is fast, and there is no second take. The approach was to move constantly — from wide establishing shots of the bar and crowd to tight frames of bartenders in action, candid guest interactions, and deliberate compositions that captured the theatre of the craft. Working alongside another photographer who specialised in drinks and product coverage, the focus here was on the human energy of the event — the expressions, the movement, the atmosphere that no product shot can convey.

A consistent look for intentional unconventional framing was applied throughout — including an overhead reflection shot that flipped the bar scene entirely, one of many moments where the camera sought an angle others wouldn't take.

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Deliverables

Full event photo set delivered to Wun Studio for distribution and use across the BARSTARS Festival assets.

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> Solo photography coverage.

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