Jonas Blue said it was the best gig he has ever done in his career—and the delighted crowd at the Chroma Music Festival would agree.
The English DJ and producer wanted to play in the Philippines for the longest time. And when he finally did, he plunged the rest of the night of the color music festival held at the Globe Circuit Events Grounds into a euphoric atmosphere dominated with light and blissful tunes on April 8.
Every remix he played had a faster tempo than its original. Jonas Blue began his set with a mash-up of Avicii’s “My Feelings for You” with “Closer”—because let’s face it, it wasn’t a 2017 rave without hearing this overplayed global hit by The Chainsmokers.
Jonas Blue only needed a few minutes to completely turn the festival into a sweet summer night halcyon. The crowd perfectly knew “Closer’s” lyrics by heart and sang as loud as they could when the DJ turned down the music, but it was the DJ’s wave-like bass drops that truly electrified them.
At that point, the fun—and dancing—had only begun. Jonas Blue steadied his set with a tropical House groove as he played Nervo’s “Alone,” a strobe-induced mix that transformed into some turntable spunk with the remix of “Feel So Close.”
And when no one in the crowd saw it coming, he put “Fast Cars” on his deck—and still kept the dance floor mood light and laid-back with eclectic pop tunes. But Jonas Blue later on changed the tempo and progressed to deeper House mixes as he experimented with waves of signature electronic dance music (EDM) tribal drum beats and Latin rhythms that introduced Daft Punk’s “One More Time.”
He proceeded with “Intoxicated” and “Anytime,” both well-known House music anthems, before he finally delighted the audience with his most popular original tracks, “Perfect Strangers” and “By Your Side.”
The crowd lost it at the first pop electronic notes of the songs. The festival headliner made the festival-goers sing most of the tracks, before he quickly shifted to the most remixed song of the rave, Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You.”
His set didn’t have wailing sirens to shake the festival grounds—and it didn’t have to. There were no quaked beats or harsh sounds to get the crowd pumped—Jonas Blue’s performance was a pure feel-good set like no other.
The crowd rode on smooth transitions that meshed idyllic notes with traditional festive House tunes during that entire set, with a party vibe to which energized ravers easily danced, jumped and clapped to.
To the delight of his fans, he gave them a special encore. The Chroma crowd had first dibs on his newest and unreleased song, which was set to debut this May.
“I just wanna thank you guys for having me, it’s my first time here and you guys have been amazing. So I thought, for the final song of my set, I would play my upcoming single that would be out next month. Just for you guys because you’ve shown me so much love,” Jonas Blue said.
It had that signature Jonas Blue minimalist House sound dominated by sweet keyboard notes and powerful vocals. There was absolutely no reason to want his playlist to end, and we’re sure it wasn’t just the Filipino crowd that enjoyed the colorful rave—Jonas Blue himself had a night to remember.