KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 — The upcoming two day arts and music festival, NusaFest 2023 has been postponed yet again, just a week before the main dates.
The organiser, Shiraz Project, has announced that the festival which was supposed to be held this February 4 and 5 in Bandar Malaysia will now be moved to July 8 and 9.
Talking to Malay Mail, Shiraz Project’s director Shirazdeen Abdul Karim issued an apology to concertgoers for the last minute change. He said that they have done their best to prevent the postponement.
“This postponement is hard on us as well, a lot of our plans had to be delayed and we had to reschedule our other shows.
“We deeply apologise to all concertgoers, especially those who had brought tickets. We promise that it’ll be a worthwhile festival and they will get an experience like no other,” he added.
He said the new tickets will be delivered to those who had brought them earlier. He reminded concertgoers not to discard their old tickets while refunds will be made to those who could not make it to the new dates.
According to Shirazdeen, the reason for the postponement was mainly due to them failing to get approvals from The Central Agency for Application for Filming and Performance by Foreign Artistes (Puspal) on time.
“A few of our international acts have failed to send us their passports on time. Without their passports, we couldn’t get our permits without Puspal’s approval.
Shirazdeen explained that they chose to move the event to July as some of their acts were already booked on earlier dates.
He added that there might be a couple of changes on the official lineup as one of the bands may not be available on the new dates. They are also working to confirm the main headliner for the festival which will be announced later on.
NusaFest 2023 which aims to celebrate the Nusantara culture has previously announced that a total of 22 acts from Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore will be performing.
The local lineup includes indie bands such as Iqbal M, Gerhana Ska Cinta as well as hip hop group Force Park Bois.
Acts from Indonesia and Singapore will include bands Fourtwnty, The Pinholes, Diskoria and Dipha Barus.
Following the postponement announcement, the frontman of Iqbal M, Iqbal, said that the delay had also affected them as they had to reschedule their calendar but he’s more worried about the concertgoers.
“This is a problem especially to those who had bought not just the festival tickets but those who had booked flights and hotels.
“This is huge for them because they’ve already applied for their work leave and all and suddenly the date changes.
“But if this postponement is the best solution, then we have no choice but to just accept it and go with it,” he said.
This is not the first time NusaFest has been postponed as previously it was set for 2020 with a different lineup. It had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Following the second postponement, concertgoers have taken to NusaFest social media pages to express their disappointment.
“This is not only a matter of refunding you know, people had applied for leaves while some had booked flight tickets, who will refund them? Please explain this,” commented user @simplynazz.
“Who’s the organiser? Your ticket is not cheap, it costs around RM3++ and almost half a grand. I knew from the beginning that this event might be cancelled or postponed because everything was done in such a short time,” added user @atrhhlmy.
“I’m from Sarawak and I've bought my flight ticket already and now the ticket is burned just like that,” commented user @fakhrullll.
