HITC RETURNS TO NYC WITH A STACKED LINEUP

by Eileen Ma

JULY 27 2025

photos by Chris Mae

Since their first festival in 2018, Head in the Clouds has quickly grown into a familiar name in the Asian community. Presented by record label 88rising, which represents Asian and Asian diaspora artists such as Rich Brian, Joji, Higher Brothers, Niki, and Jackson Wang - it's no surprise that HITC, at its roots, was meant to highlight both emerging and established Asian Artists. 

The very first festival in LA featured sixteen artists: with Rich Brian, Joji, Higher Brothers and Niki leading the charge. It was met with positive feedback, leading to its transformation into an annual festival focusing on Asian rap, R&B, and Pop acts.

The following years welcomed more talent including CL, iKon, DPR Live, Saweetie, Beabadoobee, and Keshi. 88rising also collaborated with local food vendors to provide pan-Asian food and drinks at the festival. The festival became an annual gathering boasting a positive community celebrating Asian culture.

photo by Emma Vurdien

In 2022, they organized their first international festival adding Jakarta and Manila into the mix along with the already established LA location, boasting a lineup of 40+ artists. 

In 2023, NYC was added in addition to LA (see our 2023 LA gallery here) with performances from artists such as DPR Ian, Milli, Raveena, Itzy, XG, Dabin and more. It was a nod to the longtime east coast 88rising fans, a celebration that you didn’t need a flight to attend - it was right in their backyard.

photo by Geoffrey Chan

Last year’s sole HITC festival was held in NYC, despite larger LA lineups in previous years, but that didn’t stop them from having an impressive lineup including: Atarashii Gakko!, Bibi, (G)I-DLE, Lyn Lapid, and ILLENIUM b2b Dabin.

With surprisingly no LA festival that year, fans were waiting patiently for what the label had in store as rumors circulated something big was about to happen. 

They were right. 

For this year’s 10th anniversary, HITC LA was announced and boasted a legendary lineup for the 2-day festival featuring G-Dragon, 2NE1, Porter Robinson, Dean, and 25+ other artists. It was worth the wait. 88rising also organized a magic show, surprise guests, and even more Asian-community focused vendors. With 75,000 people attending over the span of two days, it was a great success (see our review here).  

Everyone thought that wrapped up their summer HITC experience. 

Until HITC NYC was announced. 

Fans were surprised with a condensed 1-day festival featuring a refreshing EDM forward lineup to match the city’s current culture. This strays away from their usual genres but was met with excited rave goers that could now connect with HITC’s switch in genre.  

The festival is taking place Under The K Bridge Park on September 20th with artists like ISOxo, Juelz, DJ Mandy, and Nick Cheo. Not to say they're completely moving away from their usual genres that we all know and love - Rich Brian, Kun, Gemini, Groovyroom, and special guest Yuki Chiba are also performing.  

What started as a means to uplift Asian American music artists has grown into an international annual event where tens of thousands of fans pop out to see their favorite artists perform, support food vendors, and uplift the community. 

GA and VIP tickets are still available if you’re interested. Stay in the know by following the festival’s Instagram and of course 88rising’s page. See you in NYC.