Good Vibes Festival (GVF) is an annual music festival in Malaysia. Organized by Future Sound Asia, the first edition was held on August 13, 2013, later held over two days from 2016.

History

2010s

Good Vibes Festival was first organized as a multi-artist concert on 13 August 2013 at the Sepang International Circuit, with a line-up of acts like

The Smashing Pumpkins The Smashing Pumpkins (also referred to as simply Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D'arcy Wretzky, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamb ...

and

Modest Mouse Modest Mouse is an American rock band formed in 1992 in Issaquah, Washington, and currently based in Portland, Oregon. The founding members are lead singer/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green, and bassist Eric Judy. Strongly influenced ...

. In 2014, the festival was extended as a two-day event, with

Ellie Goulding Elena Jane Goulding ( ; born 30 December 1986) is an English singer and songwriter. Her career began when she met record producers Starsmith and Frankmusik, and she was later spotted by Jamie Lillywhite, who became her manager and Artists and ...

and Empire of the Sun as the main act. The festival did not take place in 2015, and starting in 2016 and the subsequent edition, GVF was held in Genting Highlands.

2020s

GVF was not held in 2020 and 2021 due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The festival was return in September 2022, and took place in

Sunway Lagoon Sunway Lagoon is an amusement park located in Bandar Sunway, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia owned by Sunway Group. History The park began operations in 1992 and was officiated by the then Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Mahathir bin Mohamad ...

under the name Good Vibes Weekender, featuring Korean rapper, CL, and Hong Kong singer,

Jackson Wang Jackson Wang (; ko, 왕잭슨; born 28 March 1994) is a Hong Kong rapper, singer, dancer, record producer, fashion designer, and music video director. He is the founder of record label Team Wang and is the creative director and lead designer ...

as the main act. The festival's 2023 edition marks the 10th anniversary since the first edition and return to took place at the festival's early edition venue, the Sepang International Circuit, first edition with three-day event, featuring lineup of acts: The 1975, The Kid Laroi and The Strokes, alongside other artists. The also gained attention due to the increase in ticket prices to become the most expensive in the history of the organization. The 1975's frontman as well as the rest of the band was banned from

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and forced by the authorities to prematurely end their performance at the festival after he criticised the country's widespread anti-LGBTQ+ laws and kissed bandmate Ross MacDonald. Healy stated that the band's decision to appear in Malaysia had been a "mistake". "When we were booking shows, I wasn't looking into it. ..So I pulled the show yesterday and we had a conversation, we said 'you know what, we can't let the kids down because they're not the problem'". The organisers subsequently cancelled the rest of the three-day festival, on government orders, citing that Healy's "controversial conduct and remarks" are "against the traditions and values of the local culture". Human rights and LGBT activist Peter Tatchell, writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' wrote that criticism of Healy and the band "deflect attention from where the criticisms should be most urgently directed: against the

homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitude (psychology), attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, h ...

of the

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regime." He also expressed that Healy is no

white saviour The term white savior is a critical description of a white person who is depicted as liberating, rescuing or uplifting non-white people; it is critical in the sense that it describes a pattern in which people of color in economically under-develo ...

for showing solidarity to the community as "queer rights are a universal human right, not a western one". Reactions to the incident from Malaysians on social media were generally critical of Healy. Some members of the

LGBT community The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay men, gay, bisexuality, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a comm ...

in Malaysia were frustrated by the incident and expressed concern it would lead to further reprisals from the religious right. The 2024 edition was cancelled due to the Installation of Yang di-Pertuan Agong XVII.

Lineup

Notes

References

External links

* {{official website, https://www.goodvibesfestival.com/ 2013 establishments in Malaysia Annual events in Malaysia Music festivals in Malaysia Music festivals established in 2013 2023 controversies Controversies in Malaysia