City Roars! Festival 2023 Celebrates Its Return To Full-Scale Festivities

Since its inception in 2019, City ROARS! Festival is known as an international platform that brings together independent artists from all over Asia, showcasing the best of innovative independent music. The festival also serves as a collaborative space for artists to share and present new musical ideas. This annual festival is a collaborative effort between Kuala Lumpur based music label and promoter Soundscape Records, Dong Tai Du and Taiwanese label Emerge Music.

After scrapping its 2021 edition due to the pandemic, the festival returned last year with a fully local line-up at the all-new Zepp Kuala Lumpur. Festival goers have returned in large numbers since the reopening of the live music sector, an enormous boon for the local music industry.

And this year, with the global COVID-19 cases continue to decline, marking a sharp down trend of the pandemic, City ROARS! Festival is set to return in a full-fledged format, over two days, with a host of performances lined up on multiple stages, at Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPAC) on 29th April, and a satellite show featuring indie artists from various Asian countries, at Zepp Kuala Lumpur on 30th April.

City ROARS! Festival 2023 is slated to bring together a large demographic of music lovers, and aims to provide them with the most amazing experience.

Among the first wave of line-up unveiled are legendary post-rock band Damn Dirty Apes from Penang, instrumental rock powerhouse Dirgahayu, Ipoh-based indie rock mainstays Muck. Other local acts on the line-up include The Filters, Rect, Wobbebong, Pitahati, Loko and many more acts to be announced soon.

This year’s edition is supported by Dana Kandungan Digital (DKD) Industri Muzik,  a funding programme initiated by the Ministry of Communications and Digital and MyCreative Ventures

Incorporated in 2012, MyCreative Ventures is a fully-owned subsidiary of the Ministry of Finance (Incorporated) under the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia (KKDM) purview. It was established to advance Malaysia’s creative industry through strategic and innovative investments.MyCreative Group continues to support the creative industry by introducing its units, namely R!UH and CENDANA in 2017. 

The festival is also supported by TuneCore, the world’s leading digital music distributor and UK clothing brand Fred Perry.

TuneCore is the leading development partner for self-releasing artists to build audiences and careers – with technology and services across distribution, publishing administration, and a range of promotional services. TuneCore Music Distribution services help artists, labels, and managers sell their music through Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, TikTok, Tencent, and more than 150 download and streaming stores worldwide, while retaining 100 percent of their sales revenue and rights for a low annual flat fee. TuneCore has been active in the indie music scene in Malaysia and the region since its expansion into SouthEast Asia in April 2021 and has localized websites in English, Thai and Bahasa Indonesia.

Fred Perry is the first British heritage brand to successfully blend sportswear with streetwear to create some of the most iconic styles of the last century.

The UK clothing brand has been actively supporting the local and regional artists via Subculture Live, it has redefined the live gig music experience for the local music scene with a union of live music, spectacular visuals and good company. Since its launch, Subculture has also often been the first to feature the latest underground sounds globally, showing the depth of the musical heritage and contemporary relevance of the Fred Perry brand. To learn more about the lineage and heritage of music.


Day 1 early bird tickets are now on-sale from 20th  February to 20 March via https://www.cloudjoi.com/shows/city-roars-festival-2023 

 For more information about City ROARS! Festival, visit the official website.