10 Things We Liked & Disliked About A State Of Trance (ASOT) & Future Music Festival Asia (FMFA) 2013

We’re still recovering from our post-ASOT/FMFA blues (and also nursing jelly legs and overall hangovers) but recalling ever so fondly what is undoubtedly one of the best weekends of 2013 to date! 

You’re sitting at your work desk, playing Temper Trap/ Bloc Party / Armin Van Buuren / Rita Ora/ Psy / fun. / Prodigy on repeat. Yup, you’ve got the post-ASOT/FMFA blues, and you’ve got it bad.

We’re here to indulge you a little bit more, and let’s all feel sad but mostly happy that we got to experience one of the best festivals in the region (yup, it was the first time that ASOT was in South East Asia) by sharing our likes and dislikes over the past weekend!

1. LIKE: Festival Fashion One of the things we like the most about going for festivals are the very trendy fashion trends and crazy party hats and costumes we saw throughout the two days – KL, you’re doing it right!

2. DISLIKE: Taxi Drama There were a lot of complaints in regards to the official ride to FMFA, TaxiMonger. Disgruntled users took to Twitter to express their frustrations of having made bookings (some even a few days in advance) only to have no cab show up on the day, despite having a confirmed booking number. Completely unacceptable!

3. LIKE: Prayer Break We loved how the DJ’s announced that they were taking a prayer break to respect local customs for Muslim concert-goers. Très cool in our books.

4. DISLIKE: Parking Woes Those who opted to come later had to park quite a distance (and we’re talking faaaaar, ie. right up to the main road which was a good 30 – 45 minute walk to the concert venue).

5. LIKE: Excellent Logistics It was such a well-planned event; there were ample portable toilets (We’re talking in the hundreds! We hardly had to queue up, and ’twas über clean), and we could not think of a better location than Sepang International Circuit to host an event of this magnitude. Also, we have to say the “weather consultants” did a good job – the absolute perfect weather played a huge part in making it an event to remember!

6. LIKE: Delectable Food Options We won’t lie – one of the things we loved the most was being able to try so many different food outlets that we’ve heard of before, but never really bothered checking out. Everything from myBurgerLab (for once, there wasn’t a queue when we arrived early on Friday) to Forty Licks ice-cream, and the murtabak store with the best keropok lekor in history. A full stomach made us happy concert goers.

7. LIKE: The Acts There was something for everyone – there was not a single empty stage. In fact, every stage had massive amounts of party goers head banging and dancing away from pop to indie, hip hop to trance. Also, it was good to be introduced to new sounds that you probably wouldn’t have checked out if not for ASOT/FMFA.

8. DISLIKE: 2-Hit Fans During some of the performances, throngs of people merely stayed for the ‘radio-friendly’ hits, and left immediately after despite the fact the performers were still rocking on stage – yeah, we know it shouldn’t matter and that the performers are probably used to it, but we felt it was in poor taste.

9. DISLIKE: Gangnam Warriors During Psy’s performance,  rowdy ‘fans’ vocalised their thoughts by shouting things like, “Hey, just play Gangnam Style! We don’t want to hear your other songs!” Guys, you may not be a fan of Psy’s other works before or after Gangnam Style but bear in mind that he IS a legit artist (and a talented one at that too), and that maybe, just maybe, other people are in fact Psy supporters who want to hear what he had to say (and not your random shouts of “PSY OPPA SARANGHAE!” on repeat).

10. LIKE: New Friends There’s just something fun about talking and singing along with random strangers. It makes you feel good to have that connection with someone from a completely different background from you – and you don’t even have to exchange names!

BONUS: Free Ferris Wheel Ride Turns out, Malaysians are not the only ones who love a free ride – tourists were amazed at how they didn’t have to pay a cent for the amazingly photogenic Ferris Wheel ride! That, along with the fireworks that went off at midnight was a nice touch.

What was your favourite thing from ASOT/FMFA? Leave us your comments below!