The festival began in 2006 as a one-day independent festival at Sydney's Royal Randwick Racecourse.[3] In 2007 it evolved into a massive travelling festival like the Big Day Out and Soundwave which visited Brisbane, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.[4] In December 2011, Future Entertainment announced that the Future Music Festival would expand out to Asia for the 2012 festival with a show held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia which was headlined by The Chemical Brothers.[5] The Asian leg of the festival has a similarity to the one in Australia with a mixture of local and international acts.
In 2014, Future Music Festival Asia in Kuala Lumpur was unexpectedly cancelled on the third day after a festivalgoer died. These were believed to be related to drug overdoses. Malaysian authorities abruptly closed the event.[6] A year later, post-mortem results showed that six deaths at the festival had been due to heat stroke.[7][8]
Avicii cancelled his first weekend of the festival. The same went for Rita Ora and Magda. Also, DJ Fresh withdrew from the 2013 lineup. Borgore did not go to Malaysia at that time for the festival.
2014 line-up
Deadmau5 - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis -Pharrell Williams - Phoenix - Hardwell - Knife Party - Eric Prydz - Rudimental - Tinie Tempah - Chase & Status - Sub Focus - Netsky - 2 Chainz - Kaskade - Dada Life - Porter Robinson - Naughty Boy - Paul van Dyk - Markus Schulz - ATB - Chuckie - Arty - R3Hab - Martin Garrix - Baauer - Monsta - Helena - Adventure Club - Carnage - Bassjackers - Deniz Koyu - Dannic - Dyro - Cut Copy - Stafford Brothers - Timmy Trumpet - Walden - Tenzin - Will Sparks - Sven Vath - Dubfire* - Maya Jane Coles* - Paul Kalkbrenner* - Gesaffelstein Live - Brodinski - Kaytranada* - Gorgon City - Guy Gerber*
2015 line-up
Drake -
Avicii -
Knife Party -
The Prodigy -
Afrojack -
Martin Garrix -
Timmy Trumpet -
Nero -
Darude -
Example -
Die Antwoord -
Sigma -
2 Chainz -
Kiesza -
Tchami -
Blasterjaxx -
Robin Schulz -
Klingande -
Gorgon City -
Carnage -
Bassjackers -
Yellow Claw -
Throttle -
Cocoon presents Sven Väth -
Art Department -
Apollonia : Shonky -
Dan Ghenacia -
Dyed Soundorom -
Hilltop Hoods -