A Jakarta Favorite: We the Fest 2019. The summer festival is back for their sixth event, and with more and more being added to the experience each year, nobody can contain their excitement.
Another year, another awaited summer music festival – one of Jakarta’s favorite annual events, We the Fest, is in the works for their sixth run, and their lineup just keeps getting bigger and bigger each year. Embracing talents hailing from varying nationalities, music isn’t the only part of the festival; arts, fashion, and food all join together as unmissable highlights, and over the years more and more elements have been added, including the WTF Cinema Club where short films are screened, a skate park last year and a carnival-like games area this year.
We the Fest 2019 Poster. Image courtesy of Ismaya Live.
Organized by Ismaya Live, We the Fest have announced 19 international artists thus far, with Australian Youtuber turned singer Troye Sivan and hip hop duo Rae Sremmurd headlining. A few more artists who will be joining them are the likes of Japanese singer and internet personality Joji, Korean-American electronic music artist Yaeji, and ambient pop band Cigarettes After Sex. Some Indonesian artists include Endah N Rhesa, Elephant Kind, Kunto Aji, Nadin Amizah, and Grrrl Gang.
Ismaya Live’s brand manager Sarah Deshita notes that this year’s “festival experience” covers several components of music, food, art, fashion, and film that represents the result of a collaboration between the organizer and multiple brands, other organizations, and communities. Like the festival’s name, Ismaya aims for We the Fest to constitute as a festival for everyone. This is evident in the festival’s Submit Your Music competition, where – with the support of SAE Jakarta, Demajors, Mustang 88.0 FM, and Provoke! Music – musicians who wish to perform at the festival can send in their original music online, and if they qualify for the next stage, they get to perform live at a Showdown. The winner then gets to perform at the festival.
Another competition available is the #WTF19Poster contest, where graphic design enthusiasts get to create their own version of the festival poster. The top three winners of the competition will have their posters printed out and put on display for the entirety of the festival.
“We want We the Fest to become a creative outlet for young creatives,” says Sarah. “Their work can be appreciated by thousands of festival-goers from all around the world at the upcoming We the Fest. There are so many brilliant musicians and artists out there who have yet to find a place where they can share their work at a larger scale. We the Fest aims to be that platform for all these musicians and artists.”