REVIEW: Joyland Festival Bali 2024, 3 Days of Hardcore (Family-Friendly) Concerts

By Ben Liew  •  20 Mar 2024 in Music

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Is it possible for a family-friendly festival to rival big name fests aimed at party crowds? In the case of Joyland Festival, we can attest that it is!

Founded by couple Ferry Dermawan and Lintang Sunarta under the company Plainsong Live, the festival went on hiatus for several years after starting in 2012, mainly due to the organisers wanting to focus on family life. The return of Joyland brought with it a rejuvenated emphasis on the family-friendly aspect of the fest.

Joyland came back in 2019, went on break again due to the pandemic, then suddenly found itself at the centre of attention when in 2022, President Jokowi and his entourage descended on the grounds to unofficially herald the return of live events.

If 2022’s Joyland Festival Bali was limited to local bands due to the pandemic, then 2023 went full-on with the headliners featuring Phoenix, Sigrid, and MIA.

This year’s headliners were equally spellbinding, with James Blake, Kings of Convenience, and Shintaro Sakamoto playing alongside other international and regional acts including Malaysia’s own Lunadira and rEmPiT g0dDe$$.

Joyland Festival happens twice a year, in Bali in March and Jakarta in November.

JUICE was lucky enough to be invited to witness this year’s Joyland Festival Bali held at The Peninsula, Nusa Dua. Having been to Joyland Festival Jakarta last year, we can clearly say this is a more scenic location with the beach just beside the festival grounds.

It’s highly likely that you’d take a dip in the cool waters here in the day before heading to the festival if you stayed at one of the many hotels in the vicinity.

At Joyland, smoking and drinking areas are separated from the rest of the festival grounds, but the drinking area turns into its own party spot at night, courtesy of some hard hitting DJs. Also, drinks were allowed to be brought out of the area if you used a tumbler and free water stations were found everywhere.

You can really feel the commitment to pulling off a decent family-vibes festival while not limiting the adult fun, from the design of the cute characters that visually represented Joyland, to the separation of smoking and drinking areas, to the eco-friendliness of promoting the use of tumblers.

Amid the headliners, there were also cultural performances, comedy shows, cinema screenings (though it was a bit loud to enjoy them), and a family area with rides and performances for the kids.

Here are a few of our favourite moments during the festival…

Day 1

The SIGIT played a rambunctious set full of their ol’ skool garage rock anthems. The Bandung outfit might be over a decade old, but they still know how to kick out the jams.

Stars & Rabbit is another veteran Indonesian indie band that deserves more attention despite being a household name in their own country.

Frontwoman Elda Suryani’s dynamic stage persona, which is both whacky and cute, really sets them apart from the other bands we saw at Joyland. Some would call them the Indonesian Sugarcubes, but comparisons to Björk’s old band doesn’t do them justice as Stars & Rabbit are in a league of their own.

Day 1 ended with a killer set by Shintaro Sakamoto. Even before he took the stage, several artistes playing that day gave shoutouts to him during their sets. Such is the respect for Shintaro, the musician’s musician.

Although he didn’t speak much (or at all), his funky and quirky music transcended language barriers as the crowd grooved in harmony.

The powerhouse Japanese jazz-fusionist was backed up by an uber-tight rhythm section and an energetic saxophonist, who apart from playing brass instruments also helmed a rubber chicken at one point.

Day 2

Kings of Convenience, having been accredited to the Indonesian folk scene revival, drew the largest crowd at Joyland Festival Bali for their sunset set.

Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe played the first half by themselves and were joined by their backing band for the rest of their set.

It was sing-along galore with the duo belting out hits like ‘I’d Rather Dance With You’, ‘Mrs Cold’, ‘Love Is A Lonely Thing’, and ‘Fever’. The guys even paid tribute to Indonesian band White Shoes & The Couples Company with a short cover of one of their songs.

Another highlight of Day 2, Ali is an Indonesian psych rock band that sounds like a Middle Eastern Khruangbin. Although it started to rain, many stayed behind to catch their groovy infectious tunes.

With a minimalist lineup featuring guitar, bass, drum, and percussions, Ali’s performance came off sounding fit for a large stadium. Oh, and how can we resist dancing to their primal beats? It was habibi rock done right.

Day 3

The Walters brought the stage down with their sweet indie pop tunes and playful antics.

Having reformed after their song ‘I Love You So’ went viral on TikTok, the band was tight and their performance was carried by their charismatic frontman, Luke Olson, who went missing in the audience during their second last song.

On the flipside of The Walters’ sun-soaked melancholy set was the dark and grimy descent of Mong Tong. The duo of two brothers from Taiwan played experimental music that can be described as Devo as a funeral band.

With their signature blindfolds on, their creepy music seemed to be the perfect soundtrack to the festival’s last day’s sunset.

British electronic musician and go-to producer for America’s rap elite, James Blake, stormed the stage with his backing drummer and bassist (with what resembled a 1950s Soviet nuclear console behind him).

Briefly explaining what separates him as an electronic musician, playing everything live instead of sequencing with laptops, you could hear the difference in his set.

Swirling sound effects and pulsating bass throbbed us on each song, carrying the fragile voice of the singer-songwriter. In short, Blake and his band turned the festival into a pseudo-clubbing arena, where depression was fashionably accepted on the dancefloor.

Closing the festival was Todd Terje’s DJ set. While the Norwegian producer did not play many of the original remixes that made his name, he did spin an hour of underground house music and ended with a surprise – a marching band’s cover of Toto’s ‘Africa’!

All in, JUICE had the time of our lives at Joyland Festival Bali!

TBH we were a bit worried when we heard about the “family-friendly” part, thinking that the festival would not live up to its reputation, or that it would be catered towards ‘clean fun’ only.

We were glad to be proven wrong. Not only does Joyland have everything you’d look for in a festival, it also has the element of inclusiveness as no one, no matter how young or old, is left out.

If anything, we definitely appreciated the chill vibe of the festival where we could walk up to the front of the stage, even during headliner sets, and not get reprimanded by the crowd as everyone was just too nice and well-behaved!

Plainsong Live’s next organised concert will be The Drums in Jakarta on 9 May 2024.

Joyland Festival Jakarta 2024 will be happening in November this year. For more details, visit their website.