From Genting to Bangkok: How a Malaysian organiser built two of Asia’s top 100 music festivals

KUALA LUMPUR, June 25 — Did you know one of Thailand’s biggest New Year countdown festivals, Neon Countdown, is organised by a Malaysian company?

Not only that, organiser NEON Projects recently saw two of its festival brands — Neon Countdown and Sunset By Neon — named in DJ Mag’s Top 100 Festivals list for the second consecutive year.

Neon Countdown is currently ranked 53rd, while Sunset By Neon is ranked 85th. According to NEON Projects chief executive officer Yogeshwara Rao, making the list itself is a major achievement.

“It is definitely not easy to get featured in DJ Mag, especially when there are so many big festivals around Asia.

“For Malaysia, of course we feel very proud to be able to deliver a show that people actually recognise and vote for.

“Sunset (Sunset By Neon) is of course a new brand where we cater to a different style of music, and they featured us in the Top 100 in the same year of its debut. This is really a proud moment for us, which is why we want to continue delivering a good show for everyone,” he said.

Building the brands

Yogeshwara said the inaugural Neon Countdown was launched in Malaysia in 2015, but a subsequent edition in Thailand opened the team’s eyes to the potential of catering to international audiences through electronic dance music (EDM).

The experience prompted the company to pause its Malaysian events for about five years and focus on expanding the brand overseas.

The strategy paid off, with the festival successfully entering major markets such as China, Japan and Qatar. At the same time, its Sunset By Neon sub-brand was gaining traction in Indonesia through premium club showcases in Bali.

After establishing a stronger international footprint, Yogeshwara felt the time was right to bring the brand back to Malaysia.

The return was led by Sunset By Neon, which has since evolved from an intimate event into a large-scale, multi-day electronic music festival in Genting Highlands.

Since returning home, NEON Projects has brought world-renowned DJs such as Hardwell, Boris Brejcha and R3HAB to perform under its banner. Meanwhile, the 2025 Neon Countdown in Thailand, held in conjunction with the festival’s 10th anniversary, featured acts including W&W, Timmy Trumpet and Nicky Romero.

Despite its track record, Yogeshwara said securing top-tier international DJs has become increasingly difficult due to strict regional exclusivity clauses imposed by major global festival brands.

Large international festivals entering the region often require performers to agree to territorial restrictions, limiting where they can perform.

“Getting international DJs is getting tougher for us, honestly speaking.

“Because festivals like Tomorrowland or EDC, they don’t just book the DJ, but they also include a regional clause where if the DJ is performing in Thailand, they can’t perform anywhere else in the region.

“We are a small company going toe-to-toe with global giants. It’s a battle of dollars and cents, and we have to fight for our piece of the market,” he said.

Although Malaysia is often perceived as a challenging market for EDM festivals, Yogeshwara said organising events here is actually easier than in Thailand.

“Thailand is a much harder country to get permits, alcohol and everything compared to Malaysia.

“Malaysia is an easy place to work with — it’s just a matter of how we do it. For example, you can have an alcohol zone here but at the same time you need water stations too. We just need to take care of the people coming to the festival.

“The officials here are also easy to work with. We just need to abide by the rules and regulations,” he said.

Bringing Upperground to Asia for the first time

Before becoming a record label and global festival brand, Upperground was the title of the breakthrough 2019 track that propelled Ukrainian duo Artbat — Artur and Batish — into the EDM mainstream.

Driven by growing demand from fans, the duo launched an independent imprint under the same name before transforming Upperground into a standalone audiovisual showcase.

By 2022, the concept had evolved into a touring international festival that visited electronic music hotspots including Mexico, Ibiza in Spain and Poland.

In collaboration with Sunset By Neon, Upperground made its Asian debut in Genting Highlands on June 20, with thousands of fans treated to a night of melodic techno, fireworks and cinematic visuals. The event also featured a drone show during Artbat’s closing set.

“Usually with Sunset By Neon, we design the festival ourselves and bring our own line-up. However, with Upperground it is totally different.

“This is their IP (intellectual property). Everything is done by them and they even brought in their own engineers to work on the festival, while we provided backend support when needed,” Yogeshwara said.

For Artbat, the decision to bring Upperground to Malaysia was an easy one.

“When we received the request, we didn’t think about it too much. We just said yes because we like nature, we like culture, and seeing how people enjoy the music here is insane.

“We’re happy to be able to bring the first Upperground here in KL,” they said.

The duo said the project is ultimately about creating meaningful shared experiences with fans rather than making a statement.

“The main thing is to be like one organism with the crowd, to bring our energy, our music, our mood and to experience it together as one community,” they said.

Dutch-Moroccan DJ R3HAB, meanwhile, said performing in Malaysia is always a pleasure, particularly at a festival where he had never previously appeared.

“It’s really nice because I get to try something new creatively and I’ve never played at this festival before, so it’s my first time too.

“And I always like Malaysia. I like the melting pot of cultures, first of all, and I just find that Malaysian people are very welcoming.

“I love the food too and I always have really good memories playing in Malaysia,” he said.

Both Artbat and R3HAB delivered energetic performances, keeping the crowd engaged throughout the night with tracks including Voodoo, Fight Machine, Horizon, For A Feeling and Upperground.

The festival also featured international acts Chris Avantgarde, 7Skies and Plastik Funk.

Sunset By Neon is set to return to Genting Highlands for a two-day festival on September 26 and 27, although the line-up for its Chapter 2 edition has yet to be announced.