SOME people might think that our college students these days aren’t “Malaysian” enough, but the news coming back from the indie artistes who performed at the annual Malaysia Festival in Sydney, Australia suggests otherwise.

The Malaysia Festival has become something of a tradition among the large community of Malaysian students Down Under. This year, however, was the first time that local indie acts were flown over to give the students some music from way back home.

Liyana Fizi from Estrella, Reza Salleh, Rashdan Harith and One Buck Short all performed at the one-day festival at the Tumbalong Park in the Sydney recreational precinct of Darling Harbour; and it turned out to be an enriching experience for them.

“I stayed with some students there. They were preparing kuah rojak for the event, and they were doing it wholeheartedly. I could tell that they really miss home a lot,” said Liyana.

Reza Salleh -- Pictures courtesy of gointernationalgroup.com.

Though Liyana’s band Estrella are pretty much established names in the local indie scene with their cool bossa nova sound and her silky smooth voice, getting to perform for the Malaysia Fest still felt special for her.

“The event was different from the other gigs that I’ve played. It’s one thing to have people singing along to your songs in KL, but it just feels different when you’re in Australia, and people still know your songs! “And also, it’s an annual thing to bring Malaysians together, so it felt really nice to be part of that,” she added.

Organised by a committee of students studying in Australia, the event included live music performances, cultural performances, exhibitions and of course, food.

The main purpose of the event however, is to promote Malaysian culture to Sydneysiders and tourists.

According to singer-songwriter Reza, that goal was certainly accomplished.

lace to organise an outdoor event. There’s lots of traffic around the area, so a lot of people who were passing by dropped by to see what was going on,” he said, adding that he was pleasently surprised to hear from the students there that Malaysians have been organising the event for 19 years now.

Liyana was particularly pleased that even the Aussies were interested in learning more about Malaysian culture.

Estrella's Liyana Fizi.

“It was a really mixed crowd. There were Aussies there who were very curious about our cultural performances. They were performing traditional music and dances, and the Aussies seemed really interested in those,” she added.

Jasmine Low, the managing director of Go International Group, who together with Malaysia Airlines were responsible for bringing the bands to Sydney, has been trying to raise the profile of the Malaysian indie scene for some time now.

She has been organising indie events under the Doppleganger brand to provide indie acts a regular stage to express their art, and bringing those acts to Sydney represented something of a milestone for her.

“The event was great! There were around five to eight thousand people that day at Darling Harbour, and it gave the acts a chance to perform at a different type of gig,” she said.

The event was particularly special for Jasmine as she used to study in Sydney. “I was a student at Sydney Unversity. I started organising events while I was studying here,” she added.

For the performers, the event was also a chance to have a little vacation. It was Reza’s second time in Australia, but he still had a lot of fun travelling with the other acts.

One Buck Short

“The indie scene in Malaysia is pretty small, so all of us already knew each other. It was like a road trip for us, and we had heaps of fun even before we played.

“It was the first time in Australia for most of them. We were only there for a few days, but we managed to visit quite a few places,” he said.

Reza even got a little taste of what life is like for Malaysian students studying in Australia when he stayed at the Malaysian Hall in Sydney.

“It’s like a ‘Mini-Malaysia’ there! It’s something like a motel, and they were mostly students staying there. A lot of them stay in the Malaysian Hall while they are waiting for their accomodation to be ready,” he explained.

During the event itself, the acts were all given a warm reception by the crowd, even though the windy conditions made it unbearably cold for some of them. Reza said One Buck Short lead singer Mooky fell sick after performing there.

“We were pleased that some of the students there knew who we were. They were all very supportive. Especially during One Buck Short’s set – the crowd just went wild!” said Reza.

Liyana added: “The crowd was so huge! And during my set, some of the guys came on stage and started dancing!”

It just shows that no matter where they are, young Malaysians will always get excited when it comes to getting a little piece of home.