Malaysia Fests Canceled

The Kuantan Music Festival was slated for April 4-5 and Life In Colour Malaysia would have taken place April 19, though another reason for the latter cancellation was the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

Promoters recently told New Straits Times they were worried that a disturbing precedent had been started. Erica Gilbert, co-director of the Kuantan festival, which would have featured blues, jazz, fusion and world music, told the paper, “We don’t know whether we will be able to attract foreign bands next time and it will be more difficult to get support from the commercial sector and to secure sponsors.”

Her partner, Atord Hamden, added that he hopes authorities look at the content of a festival more carefully before they decide to cancel it.

As far as Life in Colour goes, the promoters themselves initiated the cancellation since the event is associated with the EDM scene, which was the main attraction of Future Music.

Livescape Asia public relations chief Jason Kong is completely against any type of EDM ban.

“There have been a lot of questions … but one that hasn’t been addressed seriously is why are people taking drugs, and I think we, as a society, need to address this and there definitely needs to be more education on this issue.”