Live Review: Lizzo & BROCKHAMPTON Slay FOMO Festival

Welcoming in the new year, we see the return on fan-favourite music festival FOMO, eager to see if the same success from 2019 will carry into 2020. 

With an early start time of 11.00am, when we arrive the festival seems quiet. Eager ticket-holders breeze through non-existent entry lines and make their way into the empty Brisbane Showgrounds. The festival area houses carnival rides, food trucks, and picnic-style seating areas. 

Our first few acts - Boa, Ninajirachi and Dombresky - play to what seems like a handful of people and are presumably let down by their unfortunately early set times. The first artist to pique the interest of the small crowd is Whipped Cream aka Caroline Cecil, who sports a high level of enthusiasm and impressive visuals. The crowd remains small but energetic.

Crowd @ FOMO Festival. Photo by Bianca Holderness.

Sydney rapper Blake Turnell, better known as ChillinIT, has a somewhat cult following among the Aussie rap community, so we see a bit more hype in the crowd. A shout out to his “420 family” wins attention from some obvious fans, but his flow doesn’t translate well on stage and overall Chillinit leaves much to be desired. That being said, it’s clear that Turnell is a talented artist and lyricist. 

ChillinIT @ Brisbane Showgrounds. Photo by Bianca Holderness.

Rico Nasty (Maria-Simone Kelly) sees a growing crowd. At 22 years old, Kelly holds no fear and goes hard with every track. A performance of her aggressively titled track Smack A Bitch includes a surprising amount of audience participation. We see the crowd almost double in size by the end of Kelly’s set. It is only now starting to feel like a festival. 

Rico Nasty @ Brisbane Showgrounds. Photo by Bianca Holderness.

Giggs proves to have some diehard fans who excitedly chant lyrics to his wider-known tracks, but for the most part, we don’t see the crowd get too energetic throughout his set. This changes when Meduza takes the stage, punters going completely wild for Lose Control which becomes the highlight of FOMO thus far. 

Giggs @ Brisbane Showgrounds. Photo by Bianca Holderness.

Energy and crowds shrink again for Jax Jones, who doesn’t quite hit the mark today, but we rebuild our enthusiasm for A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie who wins us over with incredible stage production as well as the performance of much-loved tracks Look Back At It and Swervin. 

A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie @ Brisbane Showgrounds. Photo by Bianca Holderness.

Finally, we get to the highly anticipated Lizzo, who has skyrocketed into superstardom. It’s chaos from the first note of Good As Hell, followed by Scuse Me where the energy holds throughout. Lizzo boasts her mantra of body positivity as well as giving a touching shoutout for those affected bt the Australian bushfire tragedies. We hear Juice, Tempo and finally Truth Hurts which sends the crowd into a craze. Lizzo shows us exactly why the world loves her.

Lizzo @ Brisbane Showgrounds. Photo by Bianca Holderness.

Madeon (Hugo Pierre Leclercq) is next on the line-up to perform and brings his synth-pop electro vibes to the stage, and with a well worn in mosh-pit, the party continues. The set highlight comes with his track Pop Culture. 

BROCKHAMPTON take FOMO 2020 to a new level sending fans wild, with the largest crowd we've seen today. The seemingly endless members of the group take complete ownership of the stage, working with the crowd to maintain hype throughout the entirety of the set, before slowing things down for an intimate performance of Sugar. We could have ended tonight on a high, right here with the twelve-piece band sending it in an epic FOMO 2020 highlight. 

BROCKHAMPTON @ Brisbane Showgrounds. Photo by Bianca Holderness.

By the time KAYTRANADA takes the stage, crowds have dissipated and we see perhaps a quarter of ticket holders left for the Canadian DJ. For those who stayed, it's a pretty average end to FOMO 2020. KAYTRANADA confusingly sends us home with his track Go DJ, and all of the sudden the lights come on without a proper send-off or goodbye. To say it was anti-climatic would be an understatement. FOMO 2020 was let down by a weak line-up and mismatched set times, and though being thoughtfully set up, will need to come back in 2021 with one hell of a line-up to redeem itself. Let’s hope the next few shows in the FOMO 2020 run find their feet.

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