Head in the Clouds Festival Review
With the summer nearing its end, the Head in the Clouds Festival this past weekend may be the last taste of free-spirited fun before heading into the fall season. Put together by the ever-popular record label/hybrid management/video production/marketing company, 88rising, this festival was my most anticipated music event of the year and, to put it simply, lived up to the hype. Everything from the music, the food, the crowd, and the overall experience was absolute perfection.
Head in the Clouds first came onto the scene in 2018 as a one-day festival at the Los Angeles State Historic Park. At the time, many called the event “Asian Coachella” due to its lineup featuring artists from Asia and the Asian diaspora, as well as its huge fanbase of Asian Americans overjoyed to finally see themselves represented in music and on the big stage. While that did accurately describe the festival at the time, it has certainly grown past the label and carved out its own lane in the sea of American music festivals.
This year’s Head in the Clouds continued the celebration of Asian music, pop culture and food of past years, but with new additions thrown into the mix. Similar to 2021, the festival once again took attendees back to the beautiful Brookside at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. Throughout the vast, open field of the festival grounds, attendees were greeted by giant inflatable clouds, the mascot for the festival, perfect for those that were looking for the perfect Instagram photo op.
Deeper in the field were various booths for food curated by the famous 626 night market, an annual night market food festival located in the 626 area code region of the San Gabriel Valley and inspired by the night markets of Asia. The food offerings included dim sum, various dumplings, meat buns, baos, ramen, Korean BBQ, and, of course, boba. Easily head and shoulders above your typical festival food choices. My personal favorites of the weekend were the honey walnut shrimp sliders, spicy popcorn chicken and Assam milk tea from Bopomofo. Thinking about it now makes me wish I had more for the drive home.
While the decor and food offerings were a nice treat, the main attraction for the weekend-long festival was, of course, the music. To start off, 88rising took the festival to new heights with the addition of the Club Year of Dance Tent. This new indoor space had the vibe of a nightclub with several DJs playing music throughout the hours of the festival and surprise special guests closing out the space for each day. To be honest, this area was at the bottom of my list of things to do, but it quickly became my most enjoyable spot of the weekend. The first time I walked in, B was the current DJ and had just started playing the instrumental of Keith Ape’s “It G Ma.” Those familiar with the song already know how much of an absolute banger it is, but hearing it at that moment with the whole club going wild and screaming the lyrics was instantly a core memory.
As for the main lineup, we were once again graced by the 88rising Stage and Double Happiness Stage. The lineup this year featured 88rising’s roster of heavy hitters including Rich Brian, Joji, Bibi, and Jackson Wang, as well as keshi, Raveena, mxmtoon, Chungha, Jay Park, and so many others. With artists having approximately 30-minute sets with some overlap between the two stages, the entertainment was nonstop and the energy levels remained at a constant high the entire afternoon and deep into the night. A few of my performance highlights for the weekend are Bibi fans barking for her right before the start of her set, thuy calling out all the “fuckboys” in the crowd and dedicating her performance of “Chances” to them, and the entire festival grounds singing along to “Slow Dancing in the Dark” during Joji’s performance of the song as he closed out the first day of the festival.
However, the most exciting part of the evening for me was easily the finale. The finale has been a staple closer for the festival, so those who attended previous years may have a general idea of what to expect. But having the knowledge of previous years certainly doesn’t take away from the magic and excitement of it all. The past couple of years had the whole 88rising crew on stage to perform their 2018 summer hit, “Midsummer Madness,” and other hit songs from Head in the Clouds and Head in the Clouds II.
This year, Milli and Jackson Wang graced us with their presence once again to kick off the finale with a performance of their latest single “Mind Games.” As the song came to an end, Atarashii Gakko! jumped on stage to a roaring audience and kept the energy going before the Teriyaki Boyz and Rich Brian took center stage for “Tokyo Drift.” Warren Hue and Chasu then joined Rich Brian for “JADE” off of Warren Hue’s latest album. To close out the set, 88rising alumni, August 08, blessed us with his vocals for none other than “Midsummer Madness.” This brought the whole festival into a frenzy with the audience screaming the lyrics to the song. But just as we thought the surprises were over, acclaimed actress Michelle Yeoh joined the 88rising crew on stage to officially close out the night. The perfect ending to a truly perfect experience.
