Aug. 20-For Corrine Parco and Andie Pangan, Head In The Clouds Festival in Pasadena on Saturday, Aug. 20 felt a little like home.
Not that they'd ever attended the festival held at Brookside at the Rose Bowl before. But the music - pop, hip-hop, electronic and more - connected to their Filipino culture in particular and the broader Asian music scene in general, they said.
"A lot of the Asian artists we love are here," said Parco of Tracy, who like Pangan of Torrance just graduated from California State University, Sacramento. "We love seeing the representation."
They posed for photos in front of one of the giant inflatable cloud emojis tethered here and there across the festival grounds for just that purpose.
Over in the 626 Night Market food booths a long, long line of festival-goers waited patiently to place their orders at the Boba Guys booth.
Cheryl Tam, Soobin Choi, amd Haley Tran, all students Michigan State University, waited 30 minutes before they got their drinks.
"I feel there's not a lot of festivals that cater to the artists we like," said Tam of Ann Arbor, Michigan, as she, like Choi, cooled down with a classic black milk tea boba.
The record label 88rising created Head In The Clouds Festival to do just that, helping to popularize Asian and Asian American artists alongside the rise of K-pop acts and other Asian pop culture celebrations such as KCON LA, which is taking place at the Los Angeles Convention Center this weekend.
"I think some of these songs become mainstream and a lot of people outside the Asian American family are drawn to them," said Tran of Hanoi, Vietnam.
She and her friends said they were looking forward most to such artists as K-pop singer Chungha, Chinese singer-rapper Jackson Wang, Japanese singer-songwriter Joji, and Vietnamese American singer Keshi, a last-minute replacement for Saturday headliner Niki, who dropped out after contracting COVID-19.
Early Saturday musical performances ranged from a mellow set from Korean American R&B singer Hojean to a more energetic performance by Vietnamese American rapper Shotta Spence.
Thai rapper-singer Milli drew am even larger crowd for her main stage performance, arriving on stage wearing a fluffy white cloud-shaped hat, and then firing up the audience with a fun and energetic performance of mostly Thai-language songs.
Most in the afternoon audience shared Pangan's sentiments about the festival and the music alike: "There's a sense of belonging in the music," she said.
Head In The Clouds continues Sunday, Aug. 21.
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