Taking place at the JIExpo complex in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, for three days from July 20 to 22, the festival will flex its popularity and influence on an elevated level by bringing in major international acts that might not have featured years ago.

Major drawcards and headliners this year include New Zealand pop superstar Lorde, rising American R&B songstress SZA, soul singer Miguel and incendiary rapper Vince Staples.

Other acts include electronic duo ODESZA, electronic producers What So Not and Medasin, fracturing indie rockers Alt-J, songwriters James Bay and Nick Murphy and Albert Hammond Jr., who is best known as the rhythm guitarist of The Strokes.

The festival will also feature a slew of Asian acts, such as Singapore’s The Sam Willows, Malaysia’s Midnight Fusic and South Korea’s Eric Nam. 

The bevy of local acts featured this year is heavy on up-and-comers that create chill, electronic or hip-hop-influenced sounds, such as Ariel Nayaka and the Blue Room Boys, Greybox, Mantra Vutura and Softanimal, all of whom balance out mainstream pop acts Andien, Dipha Barus, Afgan, Isyana Sarasvati and GAC. 

Keeping up with the festival’s “nostalgia act” approach that has been used ever since local legends Sheila on 7 and Potret graced the We The Fest stage, this year’s festival reunites Surabaya rock band Padi, which will undoubtedly draw one of the bigger crowds at the event.

Beyond music, the festival features a mini skate park, a screening room for films, its signature Eats and Beats food area and a novelty mailing service made possible thanks to a partnership with Pos Indonesia. With the service, visitors are able to mail postcards from We The Fest to anywhere they desire. All of these interactive, brand-based features will be housed in an area dubbed WTF Con. 

Indeed, it seems that for the festival’s fourth edition, Ismaya Live is upping its game to maintain the festival’s status as the quirkiest one in Indonesia. 

The festival has doubled down on accessibility features for the disabled and teamed up with environmental experts to help run an environmentally sustainable event, led by plastic recycling program We The Change.

The program will recycle the tons and tons of plastic bottles that will undoubtedly litter the event’s grounds and ultimately reuse the material to make clothing, in partnership with H&M and bottled water conglomerate 

Danone. 

The environmental campaign is part of an effort by the festival organizers to create a more meaningful experience beyond music. 

 “Not only is this the biggest [We The Fest] we’ve held thus far, but we are also trying to provide a diverse experience while also helping to create an environmentally sustainable site inside the festival,” said Ismaya Live assistant brand manager Sarah Deshita. 

She estimated this year’s attendance to surpass the 50,000 visitors that came in We The Fest 2017. 

Attendance has grown exponentially over the years, especially following the festival’s move to a larger venue in the JIExpo complex and its expansion to three days starting last year. In 2016, when the event was held at the smaller Parkir Timur Senayan in Central Jakarta, 20,000 attendees were present throughout a very rainy weekend. 

Previous editions of the festival featured acts such as Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Mark Ronson, Ellie Goulding, Kimbra, Big Sean, Phoenix and Kodaline.