Teacher! Teacher!

Event Details

This event took place at former venue The White House Saigon, 1 Nguyễn Ư Dĩ, An Khánh, Ho Chi Minh City, on 27 August 2018, with the original address retained for archive accuracy even though the venue has since closed. The Monday Funday pool party was organised as a warm-up and taster for the wider Teacher! Teacher! event while bringing local DJs, music and fundraising together during an afternoon at the pool.

The event was built around supporting two local causes, Little Rose Warm Shelter and A.R.C. Vietnam, while giving guests an informal way to spend the day before the larger party. Music, food, drinks, books and donations were brought together so that different parts of the venue could contribute towards the fundraising effort.

Little Rose Warm Shelter was established in Ho Chi Minh City to provide protection, care, education and rehabilitation for vulnerable girls and young women. Guests who were not attending through one of the connected ticket packages were asked to donate 50,000 VND to the shelter, making direct fundraising part of entry to the event.

A.R.C. Vietnam works with animals in need in Ho Chi Minh City through rescue, rehabilitation, foster care and adoption programmes. The fundraiser supported this work through activity inside The White House Saigon, including the upstairs book room where proceeds from book sales were directed to A.R.C. Vietnam.

Entry was free for people already holding tickets for Teacher! Teacher!, linking the daytime pool gathering with the larger event programme. A limited package was also offered in connection with Mad Circus – 2nd Edition – Life is a Zoo, giving guests another route into the fundraiser and the surrounding series of parties.

The White House Saigon provided a relaxed setting with a swimming pool, inexpensive drinks and a newly introduced food menu. Rather than operating like a conventional late-night club event, Monday Funday allowed people to move between the pool, music, food and quieter areas of the building throughout the day.

Pho Ong Tay also became part of the fundraising effort by donating 20 percent of its revenue to the charity. This extended the event beyond direct entry donations and allowed money spent on food to contribute to the wider community purpose behind the gathering.

The upstairs book room offered another way for guests to support the causes while taking a break from the music and poolside activity. Books sold there raised money for A.R.C. Vietnam, connecting a quieter part of the venue with the same fundraising structure operating elsewhere during the event.

Music remained central to the programme, with Valy Mo, Yariuss, Sieg and Vynnibal appearing alongside special vinyl sets from Edge and Jonathan from Belgium. The combination gave the afternoon a broad electronic music programme rather than restricting the event to one narrowly defined club style.

French DJ and producer Valy Mo brought his own connection with House and bass-driven electronic music to the line-up. His recorded work and international activity had already taken his music beyond the local scene, making his appearance one of the stronger touring-artist connections on the programme.

Valy Mo had released music through platforms and labels connected with OWSLA, UKF and Confession, while developing a club sound built around rhythm and heavier electronic production. His involvement placed an internationally active producer alongside DJs already established within Ho Chi Minh City’s underground community.

Yaroslav Kuchin, also known as Yariuss, brought another interpretation of underground House and Techno to the event. His recorded DJ work can be explored through Yariuss on SoundCloud, preserving some of the material associated with his activity during this period in Saigon.

Yariuss had returned to DJing after a lengthy break and became involved with events around Arcan and the wider local electronic music circuit. His appearance at the pool party added another link between Monday Funday and the network of DJs moving through independent venues and alternative parties around Ho Chi Minh City.

Sieg and Vynnibal added further local representation to the bill and helped broaden the musical direction of the afternoon. Their inclusion alongside Valy Mo and Yariuss meant the programme drew heavily from DJs connected with the city’s own electronic music community rather than relying entirely on visiting performers.

Edge and Jonathan from Belgium provided special vinyl sets, introducing a different performance format to the day. Vinyl added another element to a line-up otherwise centred around contemporary club DJing and helped give the event a more varied musical character.

The fundraiser was deliberately social rather than formal, allowing people to support local organisations simply by taking part in the afternoon. Swimming, listening to music, buying food, donating at entry or purchasing a book all became different ways of contributing.

That structure also demonstrated how underground electronic music events in Ho Chi Minh City could operate outside the usual nightclub model. The focus remained on DJs and social activity, but the event used those elements to direct attention and money towards community organisations working elsewhere in the city.

The wider Teacher! Teacher! and Mad Circus connections also placed the pool party within a broader network of independent events operating in Saigon at the time. Rather than existing as an isolated fundraiser, Monday Funday connected audiences from several parties and encouraged them to support the same local causes.

Scientific Sound Asia documents events from this period as part of the development of Ho Chi Minh City’s independent music community. Its current platform brings that history together with an electronic music radio station, events programme, DJ agency and music news coverage across Asia.

The White House Saigon has since closed, but retaining its original address preserves an accurate record of where this fundraiser took place. The event remains part of the archive as a daytime gathering where local electronic music, poolside entertainment and community fundraising were combined in support of Little Rose Warm Shelter and A.R.C. Vietnam.

With Valy Mo, Yariuss, Sieg, Vynnibal, Edge and Jonathan providing the music, the party gave audiences several reasons to spend the afternoon at the venue while contributing to local causes. Monday Funday therefore represented more than a warm-up party, using the social network around Saigon’s underground music scene to raise money for both vulnerable young people and animal welfare work in Ho Chi Minh City.