The first day of Viral Fest Asia 2017 (VFA 2017) went on smoothly and ended right on schedule, but the same cannot be said for VFA Day 2.
Following the first day, the second night of the festival featured a bigger line-up of performers and had more people compared to VFA Day 1, and we understand why.
VFA Day 2 started one hour earlier then VFA Day 1, which was at 6.30pm and it was because Day 2 featured more artistes than Day 1.
But nevertheless, many of the music-loving folks still came earlier than expected and this time, it’s not just because they wanted to fill their stomach before the festival started but instead, they wanted to grab the best standing spot at the main stage since big names like Rain, AKB48, Exile the Second, Burin Boonvisut and Son Tung M-TP was slated to perform for the night.
The second day of the event also started right on time, as Taiwanese YouTuber Saint kicked off the night with his latest song “An Li” (安儷).
He was then joined by his wife Dodo on stage and the two sang a sweet duet “Don’t Want to Fight” (真的不想嘴) co-written by the both of them. After the song ended, the two locked lips on stage, and the crowd went “Aww…”!
After the couple’s sweet performance, Taiwanese rapper AmoGood got on stage to perform his latest hit “Flirtatious B****” (妖豔賤貨). After performing only one song, Thai singer Aphiwat Ueathawonsuk or better known as Stamp took over the stage and performed a soothing English track titled “The Devil”. He then continued with his best Thai hit “OMG” (โอมจงเงย) and all the fans sang along to the song while waving their glow sticks uniformly.
Soon after Stamp left the stage, Japanese idol group
Juice=Juice went on the stage to perform for the second time, and this time, they did a medley of some of their best hits while also including some of the songs they sang on Day 1.
Also, to honour their Thai fans, Juice=Juice performed the Japanese version of the Thai song “Row Mah Sing” by Thai singer Bird Thongchai, which is known as “Cha Cha Sing” in the Japanese version. The song was previously covered by Juice=Juice’s senior group, Berryz Kobo.
Thai social media sensation Bie the Ska took over the stage as soon as Juice=Juice was done, and he sang his hit song from last year titled “Saiyor” (สายย่อ), which is known for its repeated hip-shaking dance moves and addictive beats and lyrics. So, this had gotten the audience to move along to the music, shaking their hips!
Bie the Ska then introduced Namewee to the stage. Namewee performed one of his most famous tracks from his “Asia Most Wanted” album which is the “Thai Love Song” (泰國情哥). The song has a couple of Thai words in it, and is sung in Thai-style. It also expresses Namewee’s love towards Thailand and its culture.
Namewee performed the song while wearing an outfit that looks like a Thai traditional formal suit. At the same time, he also wore weird-looking glasses just like he always does.
After his first song, Bie the Ska then joined him on stage again for the song “Thai Cha Cha” (泰國恰恰) which Bie the Ska was featured in.
Since Juice=Juice appeared, the pace of the festival had been very upbeat and full of energy, and it went on through the performances of Thai rap group, Rap is Now and Thai pop star Keng Tachaya.
Everything started to slow down a little when Korean cover girl group High Color appeared at the side stage and started to sing an acapella-ish rendition of Maroon 5’s “Sunday Morning”. Some of the crowd immediately ran over to the side to catch the four beautiful girls.
The harmony between the girls was truly beautiful, and we can see that the crowd really enjoyed it as they moved and sang along to the familiar music. But the slow pace music didn’t last for long, as the girls soon got up and covered Fifth Harmony’s high-energy anthem “Worth It”, and continued it with another energetic theme “Bang Bang” by Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj.
Back to the main stage, Thai jazz crooner Burin Boonvisut started to sing some of his iconic hits which many of his fans are familiar with as they began to sing along to each song. Using his sensual voice and charming charisma, the 40-year-old singer had gotten many of his male and female fans squealing with excitement
Burin’s performance at Viral Fest Asia was probably the longest out of all the performers as the Thai jazz icon sang a total of five songs including two saxophone solos. Nevertheless, the fans – especially Thai fans – thoroughly enjoyed his performance.
Moving on, South Korean Suran presented her newest hit “Wine/If I Get Drunk Today” (오늘 취하면) in her soothingly calming but slightly raspy voice. The song is from the singer debut EP, “Walkin”.
Suran then continued to perform more of her songs from her new EP. The next one she performed was “Loss” (쩔쩔매줘), another calming track and it was the first time she performed the song live. After that, she ended her performance with a faster song titled “1+1=0”.
As soon as Suran finished her performance, rain started to pour and many fans began to disperse and look for cover, while those with raincoats and umbrellas stayed at the open venue.
Some of the performers that performed during the rain are Thai rock band Slot Machine, Chinese boy band Bet-A, and Japanese dance pop girl group Flower.
However, while we were covering from the rain, we received report that two of Flower’s members had injured themselves on stage.
Due to this, Philippines sibling duo Ranz and Niana decided to pull out from the festival for safety measures as Niana is only 10-years-old, and the siblings are also dancers.
When the rain began to subside just a little, we managed to get back to the stage just in time to catch
AKB48’s performance. The group sang three of their top-charting hits – “Heavy Rotation” (ヘビーローテーション), “Aitakatta” (会いたかった), and “Koisuru Fortune Cookie (恋するフォーチュンクッキー).
Their performance received a lot of cheers from the fans – especially male fans – and the cheers got even louder when they were joined by their Bangkok-based sister group BNK48 on stage.
After AKB48, the next one to grace the stage was Vietnamese pop star Son Tung M-TP. The pop prince started off with a remix version of his single “Lạc Trôi”, and then continued with “Em Của Ngày Hôm Qua” (You of Yesterday). During his performance, the girls went totally gaga over him, screaming and cheering which he responded with, “So cute, I really love you”.
Starting from Son Tung, the next two performances also got the ladies super excited as the next one to step the stage is none other than the King of K-pop, Rain.
Rain started his epic performance with “La Song” which was accompanied with sick dance moves by the 34-year-old singer himself. Throughout his performance, you can hear fans chanting “Jung Ji-hoon!” which is Rain’s real name. After that, Rain sang one of his older hits “It’s Raining”. During his performances, Rain occasionally gave his fans a strip tease.
Rain then performed another one of his old songs titled “Instead of Saying Goodbye” (안녕이란 말 대신). His 14-minute performance was ended with the song “Touch Ya” (터치 야).
As Rain exited the stage, the festival continued with the last act of the night from Japanese boy group Exile the Second.
The charismatic six-member boy band started off with their comeback single “Yeah!! Yeah!! Yeah!!”.
As the boys are also experienced dancers, they showed off a lot of amazing dance moves on stage. During the song, member Akira stripped off his top on stage, and this had gotten the ladies screaming and shouting for more, but alas, he had later put his jacket back on.
The group then closed the curtains of the night with their latest single titled “Summer Lover”.
As soon as the performance ended, confetti poppers went off, showering the audience at the festival and Viral Fest Asia wished everyone goodbye and goodnight.
Til next year, guys!
