KUALA LUMPUR, July 12 — It was an exhilarating weekend for indie music lovers who have been waiting for the much-anticipated two-day music festival NusaFest 2023.

Despite the festival being postponed twice and having to rejig their lineups in the past two years, over 5,000 concertgoers from Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore showed up on July 8 and 9.

With 24 local and international acts gracing the 250 feet stage, last weekend saw the abandoned Sungai Besi TUDM airport runway in Bandar Malaysia transformed into a dance floor for concertgoers.

A festival to remember

Despite the previous setbacks faced by organiser Shiraz Project, NusaFest 2023 has its own appeal with the main ones being their production quality and headliners.

The festival featured legendary local rock bands Search and Wings as headliners during the first day which captivated audience members of all ages.

This was after a slow but steady momentum built up by 10 bands and artists during the day which included Salammusik, Barasuara, Kelompok Penerbang Roket, Efek Rumah Kaca, Iqbal M and Dipha Barus.

Search was the first headliner to grace the festival by opening their set with their song Diari Qabil & Habil.

The famous 1980s rockers performed eight songs for their set which included Isi Atau Kulit, Pelesit Kota and a medley of their evergreen tracks Rozana and Isabella which had the crowd singing to every word.

Their guitarists Man Kidal and Hillary Ang also served the crowds delicious riffs and solos throughout their performance.

Search also surprised concertgoers by bringing 17-year-old female drummer Dinie to perform with them for their whole set.

Meanwhile, Wings delivered an energetic and heartfelt performance especially during a tribute for their guitarist Eddie, who had just lost his wife the day before due to kidney failure.

The tribute was led by their frontman Awie who gave a short speech before going into their song Harapan.

"As we rejoice today, there is actually someone whom we love, that is grieving. Eddie has just lost his wife yesterday.

"But because of his professionalism, he is here today to be with us.

"This is heartbreaking and I can’t say much. Let’s not talk, we’ll just perform. Let’s all sing along to this song, for Eddie,” Awie said.

The band performed their hit songs such as Romania, Opera Hidup, Peronda Jaket Biru and Sejati with Awie impressing the crowd with his powerful high pitch.

NusaFest 2023 closed with its only headliner for the second day which was local 90s grunge band Butterfingers who came to pay their ‘debt’ to their fans.

This is after they missed a few songs during their last anniversary concert in 2019 due to their bassist Kadak having an emergency during the show.

The band performed 11 songs from their earlier albums including Garden City of Lights, Girl Friday, Naive Sick Chasm, Vio Pipe and The Chemistry.

They also gave fans an encore by performing Malayneum while teasing an upcoming concert this year.

Other highlights for the second day included Indonesian band Fourtwnty who mesmerised the audience with their swaying music and soothing sounds.

The second day also saw acts such as Gerhana Ska Cinta, Pusakata, The Changcuters, Diskoria and Kugiran Masdo entertaining the crowd.

Room for improvement

Although NusaFest 2023 satisfied concertgoers overall, the two-day festival had its hiccups such as its low turnout as the organiser had initially expected 13,000 concertgoers.

The festival layout and lineup as well as ticket resellers openly selling concert tags outside the venue are definitely some issues worth looking into.

For concertgoer Aideed Elhaeqal, he had a great time with the performances although he was hugely disappointed by its layout. He had to walk quite a distance from the parking space to the concert venue.

"The sound system for the event is very good and they had a strong lineup of performers along with affordable food and beverages stalls.

"However, I must admit that their facilities are disappointing as well as the layout. They should’ve made the stalls and toilets more accessible to concertgoers by putting them nearer to the stages,” he said.

There were also a few people offering a pickup service at the end of the festival to send concertgoers to their parked vehicles for a fee between RM5 to RM10 per ride.

Meanwhile, concertgoer and freelance production assistant Syawal Zainal pointed out that the lineups of bands were a bit repetitive.

"This is because NusaFest has been postponed a few times before.

"And during that time, most of the bands such as Fourtwnty, Pusakata and Efek Rumah Kaca had all done their shows in Malaysia recently.

"So that might be the reason why there weren’t as many audience members at this festival,” Syawal said.

He added that the slot time for each of the bands wasn't enough for concertgoers to really enjoy the shows.

Bittersweet ending

According to festival organiser Shirazdeen Abdul Karim, they are grateful that they managed to stage the event despite previous setbacks.

"I think we’ve done a pretty good job in putting up a good show. From staging, production to the artists' selection, we’re very happy with how the festival stood out.

"It’s just that we’re a bit saddened by the turn up. Whether it’s economic factor or was it just too many shows, we’re trying to figure out the reason behind this,” he said.