SINGAPORE - For the first time, the Esplanade's annual alternative and indie music festival, Baybeats, will take place over four days instead of three. The line-up will feature more than 40, mostly home-grown, acts.

The 20th edition will take place at various venues within the arts centre from Nov 4 to 7. The free festival will be presented in a hybrid format.

Music fans who wish to catch the performances live will have to pre-register at the festival's website starting from late October. The concerts will also be live-streamed.

The Esplanade Theatre will feature performances by seasoned bands that have performed in past editions of the festival, such as pop-rock quartet Electrico, post-hardcore band Caracal, ska punk band The Full Pledge Munkees, post-rock outfit Amateur Takes Control and dream-pop quintet Pleasantry.

The Esplanade collaborated with local indie gig organisers and music labels for performances at the Esplanade Annexe Studio. The line-up includes R&B singer Keyana, soul/funk outfit Kribo Brothers and electronic noise duo sl_owtalk.

The festival will also have online performances by overseas bands such as American trio Destroy Boys, Indonesian metal band Voice Of Baceprot and South Korean quartet Surl.

Like previous editions of the festival, there will be new home-grown acts to check out, such as Ultra Mega Cat Attack, Woes and Rene, who went through its Budding Band mentorship program.

To mark its 20th anniversary, there will be a four-part online video series, Add To Playlist, that will delve into the festival's history.

Baybeats will be revealing more details about performances at two other venues, the Arena at the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre and Chillout Stage at the Esplanade Concourse.

The festival took place twice last year (2020), an online-only edition in August, and another in November that included both online and live peformances with limited audiences.