When people think of a DJ music festival, images of young people wasting themselves at the sound of rowdy music always come to mind. Also, DJ music festivals are often organised in big cities of well-known countries. The Borneo Music Festival Live 2022, which happened on September 9 and 10, brought a change to this perception.
In fact, this event was not organised in a big town like Kuala Lumpur, but in the humble land of the hornbill, in the town of Kuching, state of Sarawak, in the amazing island that is Borneo.
While looking online for information about this musical event, which involves electronic dance music (EDM), I came across several comments that stated that Borneo Music Festival Live is less attractive than other more known DJ music festival (like Tomorrowland Festival in Belgium and others). I am a local, so I decided to get the assignment from Asian Itinerary and go prove them wrong.
The 2 days event as such was a blast, gathering 6000 people on Friday and 8000 on Saturday at Sarawak Cultural Village, for a total of 14000 people, not bad for a debut. During the event I interviewed random attendees on the spot, getting a great overall feedback.
Savannah from Germany agreed that different festivals have different uniqueness, and she loved both the jungle setup and the great DJ lineup: “The location is perfect. I love the fact that this event does not just showcases the DJs but also local artists, which is something distinctive. The food is very nice, and we enjoyed both DJ Soda and DJ Alan Walker”.
Her friends Fina from Brunei, Greg from Scotland, Jowena and Dalton from USA told me they were very amazed by the DJ lineup, and they also loved the idea of performing local artists such as Tuku Kame and At Adau, who never fail to bring the sound of Borneo into the music element.
Local Zaphne Philip said that she had really been looking forward to Borneo Music Festival Live 2022 as for the first time international artists of this caliber, who usually perform in Kuala Lumpur, made it here in Borneo: “It’s the time for Sarawak and Borneo as a whole to receive international artists as we also have a great venues here. The booming economy and people living in harmony is a value added to the event, which I hope can continue in the future. I believe whatever negative comments out there should not stop the event. Personally, I agree the organisers did a good job in making this event a success, providing a good platform for the young generation to have a safe party”.
A guy named Nash said that “the event was hype and happening, all the audience was enjoying the DJs performances joyfully regardless of their music taste. For me personally, it was a really unique event as it was held near both a beach and the rainforest, taking the experiences to a whole new level”. Nash added: “As someone who loves art and works on art, I can tell you that the stage area was well-lit and very artistic; the lighting play, the sound system experiences, the crowd with their lead band added to the great scenery”.
Local vendor AJ mentioned to me that he expected an “awkward crowd”, but that in the end people just enjoyed the music in their own way. “Everyone has their own way of partying, and for me, that is what makes it beautiful”.
Borneo Music Festival is the largest EDM music event so far in Malaysia, and the second largest event in Borneo after the Rainforest World Music Festival. Borneo Music Festival proved that you can actually mix EDM music DJs with fusion and traditional music, achieving an amazing connection between music and music lovers.
Borneo Music Festival Live 2022 was organised exclusively by Firmament Event Studio in collaboration with More Entertainment and supported by Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Sarawak.
