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It has been a week since Future Music Festival Asia. That’s essentially how long it took for me to recover from the epic weekend in Kuala Lumpur. Future Music Festival, arguably the biggest music festival in South East Asia, has certainly stamped itself as the must go to festival in the region.
The Venue : Sepang International Circuit
FMFA kicks off as the official opening event for the Malaysian F1 Grand Prix. Thus, what better way than to warm up the tracks for the F1 cars with two days of musical ecstasy.
About an hour’s ride from KL-Town, we arrived in the circuit to be greeted by the familiar sight of a white concert tentage beside a Ferris Wheel. A Ferris Wheel at a Music Festival = WIN.
The vast area of the circuit meant that despite being in the company of of 60,000 other music dwellers / hipsters / etc etc , you’d be able to find a spot for yourself without jostling shoulder to shoulder or wiping your face onto a wet pit.
Hills adorn the sides of the Warrior’s Arena, so if the mosh pit isn’t quite your thing, you’re welcome to lay a mat and have a picnic by the slopes.
A State of Trance – First Day
Kicking off the first day of Future Music Festival Asia is the venerable Armin Van Buuren’s - A State of Trance. With the man headlining the event himself and the likes of Cosmic Gate, Ben Gold, Super8 & Tab sharing the stage, A State of Trance or more affectionately known as ASOT, has almost everyone in KL chanting ‘Eh-Sot’ over the next few days.
The first day event single-handedly pulled in the 40% foreign crowd to the circuits. Sweeping the circuit in a state of trance, almost 40,000 packed the sole stage for the night.
Laser lights, bass, hot babes dancing, laser lights, bass, hot babes dancing was the recurring theme for the night.
The ground was packed to the brim thus we had to make do with setting up our spots by the VIP podiums on the side. Not complaining – a lot of good looking people there. Non-stop EDM all through the night and AVB. Enough said.
The State of Trance didn’t end there. The party continued outside the grounds of the circuits as a looping 10 km stretch of traffic awaited. We faced the choice of waiting 3 hours for a taxi or the option of hiking a 60 km trek back to KL. Thankfully, we managed to hitch a ride on a private chaffeur service back to KL Central albeit RM200 poorer.
It was a good 1.5 hours of slow traffic before we finally lost sight of the Ferris Wheel on top of the hill. Then it was another hour’s ride before we finally got back to central KL.
Future Music Festival Asia – Sweet Disposition
The 2.5 hours tiring drive back to central KL the night before didn’t stop us from heading back to the circuit for the second day of the event.
If the first day was an epic continuous thumping of trance, the second day was an eclectic consortium of epicness. With Temper Trap, PSY, Prodigy, FUN, Rita Ora amongst the headliners, it’s almost impossible to sum up how awesome the night was. Thus, we’d like to share with you The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of FMFA 2013.
FERRIS WHEEL..
… should be made a mandatory installation at all music festivals. Set on top of the hill, it offered a great view of all the four stages at the festival. Best thing is, it’s free – as long as you’re willing to queue up for a 5 minute ride; but of course, what better way then to start or end the night with a #leaveittoyourimagination session with a special someone right on top of a music festival.
Sunset on the horizons when Temper Trap ended their set with Sweet Disposition has gone down as one of our best music festival moment ever. Our earlier thoughts that Temper Trap’s set should have been later was immediately quashed.
GANGNAM STYLE
Never mind that PSY had to fill up his set with practically a history lesson on his humble beginnings and two unknown songs; he performed Gangnam Style twice. That’s four routines of horse riding and lasso swinging dancing moves. Plus, he claimed it to be his last ever Gangnam Style performance. Check Youtube if you don’t believe us.
OLD SCHOOL
Always good to go back in time with the likes of Naughty by Nature and Prodigy. Plus, everyone seems to be down with OPP at the FMFA.
FUN.
Fun. surprised us with their energy and of course we sang our hearts out to … “Tonight…We are young…So let's set the world on fire…We can burn brighter than the sun.” … can’t get better than that. Anthem of FMFA 2013.
#FIRSTWORLDPROBLEMS
We left FMFA with no regrets but we wished the major acts didn’t perform at the same time. Amongst our #firstworldproblems were choosing between Rita Ora and childhood heroes Naughty by Nature. Then, later that night, we faced an endless wait for Bloc Party to start thus missing Prodigy’s opening number.
Photo & Text by Fadhli Fadzil @MFBMF
