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Good Vibes Festival Turns 10: Everything’s Bigger, Better, & Bolder in the Wilderness of Sepang
#GVF2023 returns to the motherland over a three-day celebration. And if the first wave of announcements is any indication of its massiveness, then sign us up and take our money!
Good Vibes Festival 2023
February 2023

Good Vibes Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary by bringing Malaysia’s beloved premier music festival back to Sepang International Circuit, in an homage to its humble beginnings. Instead of the usual 2-day weekend, #GVF2023 will be taking place over THREE days from 21, 22 and 23 July.

“Sepang holds a lot of history for us – it’s where the very first Good Vibes Festival was held way back in 2013. Since then, we’ve had our fair share of ups and downs but we’re proud to still be here ten years later. To celebrate and show our gratitude to everyone who’s been part of this journey with us in the past decade, we’ll be expanding the festival to a whopping three days, stacked with our biggest lineup to date,” Wan Alman, Director of Entertainment at Future Sound Asia.

“It’s all coming full circle as we go back to where we started, only better. For starters, we’ll be pulling out all the stops to transform the venue into the festival grounds that everyone has come to know and love. We’re working with a number of local as well as international artists to showcase their art installations, some of which have famously been featured in prominent music festivals worldwide.”

#GVF2023’s larger venue means more space – and in this case, much more space! Get ready to dance your heart out at the bigger, new and improved Electric Fields – the festival’s much-loved third stage that features a stunning mix of international and local DJs, electronic and hip-hop acts. Expect supersized VIP areas and also a supersized Good Bites food village featuring specially-curated food vendors including a plant-based section by Harvest Gourmet, to satisfy even the most discerning foodie. Not only that, for the first time ever the festival will also feature a fully-functioning ferris wheel, which will undoubtedly provide the best views – and selfies! – of the festival grounds. Festival doors open between     4 pm to 12 am each day.

Festival goers can expect a stellar line-up this year — the first wave of acts announced include headliners The Strokes (“Last Nite”, “Reptilia”), one of the most influential bands of the early 21st century with their direct, hooky sound that set trends even as it looked back on rock history. The band’s sixth album, The New Abnormal won Best Rock Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards in 2021. Needing no further introduction, English rock sensations The 1975, (“Somebody Else”, “Robbers”) are back in Malaysia for a second time to showcase hits from the band’s most intimate sounding record yet, Being Funny in a Foreign Language. Having collaborated with industry heavyweights such as Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus, teenage phenomenon The Kid LAROI (“STAY”, “WITHOUT YOU”) is a multiple 2022 Billboard Music Awards winner, and counts Tupac, Erykah Badu, and The Fugees as some of his musical influences.

The Kid LAROI

Photo by Good Vibes Festival

Dermont Kennedy

Photo by Good Vibes Festival

NxWorries

Photo by Good Vibes Festival

From busking in the streets to selling out stadiums around the world, Dermot Kennedy’s (“Paradise”, “Power Over Me”) golden vocals and piercing lyrical content saw the success of his debut album Without Fear, establishing himself as a platinum-selling artist in over 12 countries all while amassing circa 4 billion streams cross-platform. Dhruv’s (“Double Take”, “Moonlight”) brand of bedroom pop meets R&B with lyrical storytelling is what made “Double Take” a viral hit in 2019, while the London-born Singaporean-American was still a third-year student at Yale University. Meanwhile, Korean multi-genre musical and visual collective Dream Perfect Regime will see two artists from the label performing at #GVF2023; rapper and singer, DPR LIVE’s (“Jasmine”, “Text Me”) debut EP Coming to You Live, landed in the Top 15 of the Billboard World Albums chart, merging melodic rap with giddy pop and psychedelic tendencies, while DPR IAN’s (“No Blueberries”, “So Beautiful”) childhood fascination with electronic duo Daft Punk’s Discovery album and the musical Cats gave him a keen awareness of the importance of visual presentation which fans can expect in his enigmatic performances.

Next in the line-up, is the captivating baritone voice, pensive lyrics and colourful soundscape of Giveon (“Peaches”, “Heartbreak Anniversary”), a rising music artist featured in Justin Bieber’s “Peaches”. Following that, producer, songwriter and DJ Gryffin (“Desire”, “Feel Good”) has worked with everyone from Carly Rae Jepsen, to AlunaGeorge, and OneRepublic just to name a few.

The 1975

Photo by Good Vibes Festival

Members of NxWorries (“Suede”, “Link Up”) consisting of duo Anderson .Paak and Knxwledge have both gone on to achieve stellar success since their 2016 debut album, Yes Lawd! Anderson .Paak’s career has skyrocketed with chart-topping singles and albums, as well as 8 Grammy Awards both for his solo work and for his duo with Bruno Mars, Silk Sonic, while Knxwledge has continued to produce tracks at an unrivalled clip and picked up a Grammy Award himself for his work on Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp A Butterfly”. Peach Tree Rascals (“Mariposa”, “Change My Mind”) — an upbeat California five-piece — make carefree, idealistic pop music as sunny and bright as their West Coast surroundings while tapping into the influence of richly arranged R&B as well as a classic rock melody, making this San Jose collective a streaming sensation.

Meanwhile, critically acclaimed and Grammy-nominated producer and songwriter, Porter Robinson (“Shelter”, “Sad Machine”) whose album Nurture topped the US Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart, will be performing a brand new live set featuring a full band at #GVF2023. Filipino-born singer songwriter RINI (“My Favourite Clothes”, “Meet Me in Amsterdam”) is next; A purveyor of slow and sensual R&B, and collaborating with Vince Valentino in “Wasted” in 2016. Next up, 23-year old singer, songwriter and actress Sabrina Carpenter (“On My Way”, “Emails I Can’t Send”) delivers anthem after anthem, earning platinum and multiple gold certifications and performing to sold-out crowds worldwide with her debut single “Skin”, marking her first Billboard Hot 100 hit and nearly 240M global streams to date on her latest album. From humble beginnings to being undoubtedly one of the most successful hitmakers in Southeast Asia, Singapore-born rapper, producer and songwriter, ALYPH (“SWIPE”, “Sang Saka Biru”) counts 218 million views on the songs he’s produced, written, and performed and has worked with list of Malaysian icons from Joe Flizzow, Kaka Azraff, K-Clique, Zizan Razak, and De Fam.

ALYPH

Photo by Good Vibes Festival

Lunadira

Photo by Good Vibes Festival

Blink

Photo by Good Vibes Festival

Celebrate 10 years of dance music with Blink (“Here We Go Again”, “Kismet”), one half of DJ duo extraordinaire, Goldfish + Blink that has played some of the largest music festivals around the world, as he takes you on a trip down memory lane with his ‘Decadance’ set. The enigmatic Lunadira (“ur cute but boring”, “Forever’s Not Our Thing”) broke away from the YouTube bubble of covers and has gone from strength to strength with each consecutive single, accumulating 1.3 million plays on Spotify from almost 80 countries in the past year and is the first Malaysian artist to perform on the ColorsXStudios stage. No stranger to the local festival scene, Talitha’s (“comeoutside”, “would you”) hit debut single “Okay” has garnered 1.8 million streams on Spotify while raking up plenty of plays of radio, on a heavy rotation, making her a household name.

FORCEPARKBOIS, (“LOTUS”, “ULTRA”) is a collective of 10 Malay rap artists from Johor Bahru with over 8 million streams for their hit single “LOTUS” on Spotify. Emerging R&B and hip-hop star,  Airliftz’s (“Lonely”, “Honest”)  affinity for songwriting has seen him grow from bedroom musician to being signed with RedRecords, and a growing fanbase that spans the entirety of Southeast Asia, Japan, Australia, USA, and United Kingdom. With almost a million followers on Instagram, 20-year old DJ and content creator Jovynn (“YOUR ATTENTION”) is making waves with a sound that’s all her own. Watch this space.

Next up, Emo Night KL has been leading the black parade in Malaysia since 2016. What started as a nostalgic pop-up party of 300 people has grown into a cult-following of more than 3,000 former emo kids and a festival staple and #GVF2023 will see the all-girl lineup of DJ Aida with her friends, Sam and Lynd, on the mic with some surprise guest artists. Describing themselves as “math rock lite”, The Filters (“BZD”, “John Pine”) are  a fractional math rock outfit hailing from Kuala Lumpur and the second act from Malaysia to have played a set for the international live music series, Audiotree.  Last but not least, Malaysian-raised, New York-based JAIE (​​”Daylight”, “discohaze”) is a R&B pop singer, songwriter and producer who combines her signature vocal aesthetic against a lush, organic backdrop.

FORCEPARKBOIS

Photo by Good Vibes Festival

Expect many more acts to be added to the #GVF2023 bill in the weeks to come.

This year, #GVF2023 will be collaborating with Motherchuckers as its Official Merchandise Partner to produce an exclusive line of Motherchuckers x #GVF2023 festival merchandise. These items will be made available for purchase online at the Motherchuckers website before the festival, and also at the merchandise booth on site during festival dates.

Good Vibes Festival is supported by Sepang International Circuit, Official Food Partner Harvest Gourmet, Official Sponsor Nanostix, with Hitz FM and Mix FM as Official Radio Partners.

JAIE

Photo by Good Vibes Festival

Tickets will go on sale from 11 am, 22 February 2023. For more information, visit www.goodvibesfestival.com.

In a meantime, while waiting for the second announcement for 2nd wave line-up to be made public here is some of the lists of both international and local acts’ official music videos you might want to check out below here:

The Adults Are Talking – ‘The New Abnormal’ Album (2021)

Music Video by The Strokes

I’m In Love With You – ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’ Album (2022)

Music Video by The 1975

Thousand Miles – Singles (2022)

Photo by The Kid LAROI

Where I Go feat. H.E.R. – Singles (2022)

Music Video by NxWorries (Anderson .Paak & Knxwledge) 

Musician – ‘Nurture’ Album (2021)

Music Video by Porter Robinson

Moped – Does A Fish Know It’s Wet EP (2022)

Music Video by Peach Tree Rascals

Swipe – Singles (2022)

Music Video by ALYPH

GO SLOW – Singles (2023)

Music Video by COLORS / Lunadira

Must Be Nice – Singles (2023)

Music Video by FORCEPARKBOIS

Obvi – Singles (2023)

Music Video by JAIE

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