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Jakarta Post

Joyland Festival Jakarta aims to bring back familial joy

Felix Martua (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, October 3, 2022

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Joyland Festival Jakarta aims to bring back familial joy Diversity: This year's Joyland Festival Jakarta will feature local and international music acts from various genres, such as the American R&B trio Moonchild. (Courtesy of Moonchild) (Moonchild management/Photo Courtesy of Moonchild)

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em>After a successful event in Bali in March, Joyland Festival is set to return to Jakarta in November. The key players behind the festival talk about what to expect.

Back in March, show organizer Plainsong Live made waves thanks to the success of Joyland Festival Bali, one of the first live music festivals to take place in Indonesia this year. As the global pandemic began to subside, the Bali festival ushered in a major return for other festivals, allowing music lovers to feel safer embracing offline gatherings again.

In November, Plainsong Live is set to host the next edition of the Joyland festival, this time in Jakarta. Program director Ferry Dermawan and creative director Gisela Ruslim spoke with The Jakarta Post on Sept. 5 to offer a glimpse of what to expect from their upcoming venture.

"We want the next Joyland Festival to be even bigger than its predecessor," said Gisela. "The pressure is there, but from the very beginning, we had already settled on that mindset, that the next Joyland should 'wow' more."

Girl power: K-pop girl group Secret Number is set to grace the Joyland stage. (Courtesy of the group's official Instagram account)
Girl power: K-pop girl group Secret Number is set to grace the Joyland stage. (Courtesy of the group's official Instagram account) (Vine Entertainment/Photo Courtesy of the group's official Instagram account)

'Exceeded expectations'

The organizers behind Joyland Festival had already set their sights on throwing the Jakarta event sometime this year. That said, Ferry and Gisela acknowledged that the considerable success of the Bali festival in March gave them the confidence they needed to carry on with their initial plan.

Ferry, for one, said Joyland Festival Bali had "exceeded expectations", especially given that the event had to be delayed for a month due to pandemic-related issues.

"A few parties were still questioning us, like, 'How certain are you in dealing with the risk, should push come to shove?' Still, during the preparations, we found ourselves reconnecting with our pals in the [music] industry—all of whom were raring to start [performing] again. At the same time, though, they were also ready to comply with the [pandemic] protocols. We figured, like, 'Well, someone has to kick things off!'"

Not only did Joyland Festival Bali see performances by the likes of Yura Yunita, Raisa, Grrl Gang, White Shoes & The Couples Company, Gabber Modus Operandi and Diskoria, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo himself, accompanied by some Cabinet ministers—turned up to offer support for the festivity.

Joyland Festival Bali had wrapped, and it was time for the Plainsong Live team—led by Ferry and Gisela—to start working on the Jakarta festivity. Cut to a few months later, they could not help but notice that more concert promoters had finally come out of the woodwork as well, resulting in the rise of live music events and festivals.

Making things more complicated, Joyland Festival Jakarta will not be the only live music festival in town in November. Other events include Gudfest 2022, Canapella Fest 2022 and Soundrenaline 2022.

Responding to the so-called "competitors", Gisela said, "We are more focused on strengthening the Joyland experience because we’ve observed how lots of festivals out there will [only] focus on the [music] lineups."

Honored: Indonesian indie pop artist Reruntuh said that taking part in the festival was a huge honor. (Courtesy of Reruntuh)
Honored: Indonesian indie pop artist Reruntuh said that taking part in the festival was a huge honor. (Courtesy of Reruntuh) (Reruntuh management/Photo Courtesy of Reruntuh)

Familial 'vibe'

Joyland Festival Jakarta is scheduled to take place at the Gelora Bung Karno field from Nov. 4 until Nov. 6. Ferry and Gisela have looked to March's Bali festival as their reference, but they understand that they cannot simply duplicate their previous strategy—mainly because Bali and Jakarta produced two very different types of audiences, they observed.

Gisella said you could tell a lot about your audience's character and preferences from how they presented themselves.

"The Balinese dress up more expressively, kind of like what you see at music festivals overseas," Gisela remarked. "They dress up more summer-y and such. Whereas the Jakartans are not necessarily that way. They're a bit more restrained, I think."

Thus, the forthcoming festival's "vibe" would be important, according to Gisela. Being the creative director, she highlighted that while the Bali festival was, appropriately, designed like a beach party, the upcoming Jakarta festival would be a more "chill, garden-esque, live music in the park" kind of affair.

Design-wise, throwing a carbon-neutral festival became a top priority as well.

"From the very beginning, we have been conscious about choosing materials that are more sustainable," she continued. "That applies not only to the festival design, but also to everything else. For instance, we will not make plastic bottles available. We will provide water stations instead and we will encourage visitors to bring their own bottles."

Diversity in the music lineups did not escape Ferry's attention as the program director. According to the festival's press release, this year's Joyland Festival Jakarta is set to invite more than 60 performers from various musical backgrounds, both local and international. So far, some of the confirmed acts are American R&B trio Moonchild, K-pop girl group Secret Number, Japanese psychedelic artist Cornelius, jazz-pop singer-songwriter Monita Tahalea and ambient pop savant Reruntuh.

Joyland Festival Jakarta is also set to feature returning performers, namely pop soloist Yura Yunita, rock outfit The Adams, omni-pop artist Isyana Sarasvati and indie rock trio Grrl Gang. The organizers say more acts are to be announced.

"Everything has been put into consideration," Ferry explained. "We want this festival to be a celebration for everyone. That also means representing different characters and [music] communities."

The audience could expect three stages from this year's Joyland Festival Jakarta, one for "international headliners and the bands that happen to be festival veterans", another for "the middle-ground acts" and the third for "the emerging, newer acts," he said.

Besides the music performances, Joyland Festival Jakarta is set to feature other events and interactive programs, such as arts and crafts and stand-up comics. Ferry said there was "little possibility" that the stand-up comics would be live-streamed or prerecorded.

"There's a different satisfaction when the comics perform offline," he continued. "Lots of comics wouldn’t accept a job—back during the pandemic—if they would be recorded. They're not like musicians."

The audience can expect an event that embraces "more than just one target market", said Gisela, adding that the festival would include interactive programs for children 12 and under.

"The Joyland Festival Jakarta in 2019 was more family-oriented," she continued, "so hopefully this year's festival can be just the same."

"For me, it's important for [children] to enjoy such an experience as well," Ferry chimed in.

Already a confirmed performer for the Jakarta festival, Reruntuh said on Wednesday that the main reason he decided to come onboard was the organizers' commitment to heterogeneity.

"I have always admired how Joyland Festival does its curation—the music lineups, the films to be screened, the workshops and the rest of the activities. I salute the people behind the festival. Taking part in a Joyland Festival, I think, is a very huge honor," he said.

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