FLAVS Festival in 2021 is back to fire up the spirit of hip hop subculture throughout the archipelago. After the success of its first virtual event last year, partnering with Visicita Network as its promoter, FLAVS Festival will once again air on the virtual space with all sorts of competitions and a live music festival.

FLAVS Festival is an event to celebrate the hip hop, soul and R&B scene in Indonesia. Last year, the first ever FLAVS Festival had to be held virtually due to the pandemic and was welcomed with enthusiasm. This year, “FLAVS has to go on under any circumstance so that the spirit of hip hop culture continues burning all over Indonesia,” said M. Riza, the festival director.

The pre-event will comprise a series of programmes, such as virtual competitions. There are DJ Battle, Graffiti, B-boy/B-girl Battle, Open Style Battle and Freestyle Rap Session. Registration for the competitions is open via Instagram starting 14 August.

The festival will be closed with a virtual live music festival on 30-31 October. The live music session carries “The Seeds” as its theme. It aims to fire up the spirit of regeneration in the Indonesian hip hop, soul and R&B scene and expand the ecosystem. Several curated hip hop, soul and R&B musicians from Sabang to Merauke will take the stage.

Yacko, the program director of the festival, underlined that FLAVS is not all about music. “This is about the diverse elements of hip hop culture like rap, DJ, breaking and graffiti. Through the pre-event, FLAVS would be able to detect new ‘seeds’...so they can be exposed and develop beyond their respective areas.”

In June, FLAVS introduced new talents from their programme, FLAVS Nu Icon. In September, FLAVS Festival will open with a warm-up show ‘GEMAH RIPAH LOH SYMPHONY’, a contemporary music performance brought by hip hop musicians from Yogyakarta accompanied by orchestral music performed by HELL HOUSE JOGJA. The performance will be accessible for free via www.visinetshow.com.