writer: rebecca hidayat
22 October 2022
A Festival Of Asian Pride
Head In The Clouds, organised by 88rising, is an annual music festival that has been held since 2018. This festival was held in Los Angeles for two years in a row, and moved to Pasadena afterwards. The lineups for Head In The Clouds in 2018 were Rich Brian, Joji, NIKI, Keith Ape, Dumbfoundead, Higher Brothers, and some other musicians that came from North America and Asian music industries.
Before Head In The Clouds, the first festival that was arranged by 88rising was called “Double Happiness”. The Double Happiness Tour gave the management a view that there’s a spot for Asian musicians on the music scene in the United States.
The concept of Head In The Clouds itself is a festival that not only brings international acts as its line up, but also gives the stages to the local acts. Also, it’s a form of festival that gives the audience not only good performances, but also good food to enjoy at the same time. In 2019, after all the success that they had in 2018, the international platform started to call the festival as ‘The Asian Coachella’.
The first Head In The Clouds festival was held at Los Angeles State Historic Park, with Rich Brian, Joji, NIKI, Keith Ape, Higher Brothers, Dumbfoundead, Anderson Paak, August08, Zion T, Murda Beatz, Laff Trax, Yun Pinch, Sen Morimoto, Don Krez, Diablo, and also Kohh. It’s not only the first HITC Festival for 88rising, but also became the debut stage performance of Japanese rapper Kohh, in the United States.
In 2019, for the second time, 88rising chose Los Angeles State Historic Park as the venue for Head In The Clouds. But this time, they divided the stage to ‘88rising stage’ and ‘Double Happiness stage’, and separated the line up for both stages. After Zion T, in 2019, 88rising invited iKON, DPR Live and Jackson Wang to Head In The Clouds as their line up.
Not only the names that have been mentioned, Joji, NIKI, Rich Brian, Higher Brothers, August08, Dumbfoundead, Deb Never, and ICINC were also invited to perform at 88rising stage, while K?d, Manilla Killa, 박혜진 Park HyeJin, Josh Pan, Qrion, and Don Krez, were invited to perform at Double Happiness stage.
Initially, 88rising planned to hold Head In The Clouds in Jakarta in 2020. The festival should be held in JIExpo Kemayoran, Jakarta. But unfortunately, cancelled the plan due to the pandemic. It was such a big loss because it should be the moment of homecoming for Rich Brian, NIKI and Stephanie Poetri. Other lineups that have been announced were DAY6, Chung Ha, Higher Brothers, August08 and Joji.
As for the replacement, 88rising held a free online concert for the fans called ‘Asia Rising Forever Festival.’ It was a charity concert that was meant to raise money to help with combating the rise of anti-Asian sentiment, all over the world.
In 2022, 88rising held the festival in three different cities, Pasadena, Jakarta and Manila. Another Rose Bowl show, the lineups for Head In The Clouds in Los Angeles included Joji, Keshi, Jay Park, Eaj, Ylona Garcia, Chungha, Jackson Wang, Rich Brian, BIBI, Atarashii Gakko!, Warren Hue, Chungha and Milli.
After waiting for almost 2 years, Head In The Clouds finally set foot in Jakarta, Indonesia. The show was held for two days on 3rd and 4th December 2022 at Community Park PIK 2. On only became the homecoming moments for NIKI, Rich Brian, Stephanie Poetri and Warren Hue, but also marked the first festival by 88rising in Jakarta.
The lineup for Head in The Clouds Jakarta included Jackson Wang, Atarashii Gakko!, Zico, eaJ, Milli, August08, Joji, Yoasobi, Chungha, Kaskade, (G)I-DLE, BIBI, Kaskade, Elephante, Spence Lee, Voice of Baceprot, Yanqi Zhang, Ylona Garcia and many more.
The last city for Head In The Clouds was Manila. It was also the first festival presented by 88rising for Manila fans. Just like Jakarta, NIKI, Rich Brian, Stephanie Poetri, Warren Hue, Joji, eaJ, Yoasobi, Jackson Wang, Atarashii Gakko!, August08, and Milli were performing. 88rising also invited Jessi to the stage for Manila.
88rising is a ‘hybrid management’ founded by Jaeson Ma and Sean Miyashiro in 2015. Before being called ‘88rising’, the management was named as ‘CXSHXNLY’ or pronounced as ‘cash only’. The management name was changed in 2016 to ‘88rising’. The name itself derived from Chinese philosophy, as eighty eight translated to ‘double happiness’ in China.
The goal of 88rising is to be a company that represents Asians in the international music industry. Started with only a few artists including Dumbfoundead, Josh Pan, Brian Puspos, and Okasian, the company currently being the home of 17 musicians, including Rich Brian, Joji, NIKI, Stephanie Poetri, Seori, Warren Hue, Milli, Chungha, BIBI, and many more.
After a year, combating the COVID-19, the government of the United States decided to announce that they allowed all kinds of outdoor activities, including concerts. So, after the pandemic declared to be ended, 88rising finally announced that Head In The Clouds will be held in Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California.
The first Head In The Clouds after the pandemic ended, was held on 6th and 7th November, 2021. Just like 2019, they divided the stage into 88rising stage and Double Happiness stage. But, the festival was bigger than 2019, since 88rising invited a lot of musicians to perform. The lineup for 88rising stage included Rich Brian, CL, Illenium, Saweetie, DPR Ian, DPR Live, Lil Cherry + Gold Buuda, Joji, Atarashii Gakko!, NIKI, Eaj, Keshi, Feel Ghood Music, Warren Hue and Luna Li.
As for the Double Happiness stage, 88rising invited Japanese Breakfast, Umi, Seori, Elephante, Stephanie Poetri, Rei Ami, Audrey Nuna, Ylona Garcia, Beabadoobee, Guapdad 4000, Josh Pan, Wallice, The Linda Lindas, and Mỹ Anh. The festival was also organised by Golden Voice, the same promoter as Coachella.
