KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 — Malaysia’s largest outdoor music festival took place over the weekend and to wrap it in short, it was brilliant.
The 2018 Toyota Good Vibes Festival (GVF 2018) marked the return of the home-grown music and lifestyle festival for the sixth year running and with each passing year the organisers seem to get better at what they do from putting together a brilliant line-up of local and international acts to the festival layout, facilities, fun and games.
There were more than 10 positives to take home following the event, but here’s our list of four which has us looking forward to the 2019 edition.
Impressive local acts
A majority of the crowd on both days arrived after 6pm which meant they missed out on what made the event a memorable one for us: The talent our local acts displayed on all three stages at The Ranch in Genting Highlands.
LUNADIRA kicked things off on Saturday at the Blue Stage before Zamaera delivered a powerful half hour set on the Red Stage with her unique rap style.
Pastel Lite and $miley pleased the crowd at the Blue Stage and Electric Fields respectively before Kyoto Protocol put more life into the crowd at the Red Stage.
The highlight of day one was Altimet & The Kawan Band who gave the fans a brilliant mix of world music and hip-hop along with a Malaysian twist.
Pop singer Bil Musa, 24, kicked things off on day two which also featured Noh Salleh, Dangerdisko, Fatim, Dj Nesh, and Dan $hiv.
The act which stole our hearts on day two was Froya, who blended in a wide range of genres throughout her 30 minutes on the Red Stage.
Diversity
What sets GVF apart from the rest of the music festivals in Malaysia is its diversity. Not only musical diversity but in a variety of ways. From music to the fun and games, there was always another option to choose from if a style did not suit you.
Music-wise, there was pop, rock, hip-hop and folk to name a few while there were various activities from jumping on a trampoline to a simpler game such as Jenga.
There was a wide variety of food as well such as nachos, burgers, sandwiches and fried chicken. In a nutshell, the best way to describe it would be as a festival for all.
The international acts really loved Malaysia
We have all heard that line of “Malaysia, I love you”, “You were amazing Malaysia” from international acts but GVF2018 was special because headliner artists such as Lorde, SZA, Louis The Child and Odesza truly displayed quite an affection for Malaysia.
On Day 1, Louis The Child and Vince Staples were surprised with how much the Malaysian audience knew about their music.
SZA went a step further and shocked the crowd by appearing on stage in a red sari and told the 15,000 fans “Malaysia, I’m truly impressed by your culture.”
New Zealander Lorde was also taken aback, looking very emotional after the end of her set on day two. The 21-year-old addressed to the crowd: “Wow, I can’t believe I’m in Malaysia, you have been so wonderful.” (Please come back, Lorde… you were amazing too!).
The management
For this year, fans did not have much to complain about. The entrance was placed higher on the hill, with more counters to check-in fans while parking was easily available too.
Crowd control was better and there was a bigger medical room in place along with a better facilitated lost and found department.
After the heavy rain horror that happened at GVF 2017, the organisers provided wooden platforms to walk on along with more tables and chairs around the festival ground.
For those who did not drive, cable car rides up to Resorts World Genting was free too. The grouse we had was parking at the Genting Skyway multi-storey parking lot. We kid you not, it took us about two hours to get out of there on day one, thankfully day two was a breeze.
Kudos, to the team!
