Before FOMO By Night even began, it already had its concerns. Headliner Lil Pump wasn’t given access to Australia over Visa issues; the original venue choice of Red Hill Auditorium had to be downsized to Metro City, which encountered council issues and had to be moved to Villa Nightclub a day before the event; and many ticketing issues had left many of the festival goers feeling a bit uneasy.

Little did we know that FOMO By Night would just need a bit of warming up.

Arriving at the event just before 7 saw Your Girl Pho performing to under 20 people who were mostly sitting around the edges, leaving the dance floor vacant. The beginning of MIMI’s DJ set started with 5 enthusiastic party goers hitting the dance floor as she beckoned the crowd to come have a good time with her. Consisting of mainly house remixes, MIMI put on a good show and did the best she could for those there. A redeeming ‘Mo Bamba’ remix got more people feeling comfortable, with MIMI then performing her latest single ‘Bad Girls Know’, which was received well by the growing crowd.

A crowd had slowly started to develop by the time Arno Faraji came out on stage, getting them to sing along to the chorus of ‘130 Ego Jump’. The rapper looked comfortable with his home crowd and even brought out fellow Perth rapper Tonton to perform ‘Tree’x’ together. Arno had continuous high energy throughout the set and the crowd were feeding off it, singing and dancing along to his other hits such as ‘Destiny’s’ and ‘Bless’.

Carmouflage Rose was a favourite, hyping the crowd up with ‘Flame$’ and getting everyone swaying with favourites ‘Wildflowers’ and ‘Taste’. The Brisbane rapper got his fans dancing on stage, with Edward ‘Edit’ Maradona making a few second dancing debut).. Of course, he stole the night with ‘Late Nights’ and warmed up the audience for the next two stellar acts to come.

Next up was Dutch DJ San Holo, who opened with his unmistakable ‘Light’ and had the whole crowd excited for the amazing set to come. The small venue was packed, and Holo filled the space with a mix of his own originals and remixes, including Fetty Wap’s ‘Trap Queen’, ‘The Next Episode’ and his own take on Flux Pavillion’s banger ‘I Can’t Stop’. He moved away from a lot of his usual songs to cater to his Perth audience, allowing more house songs which were enthusiastically lapped up by the crowd. There was no better way to end the set than by blasting ‘Lights’ again.

At long last the venue was bustling to see the Mississippi hip hop legends, Rae Sremmurd. Their DJ did an amazing job hyping the crowd up before the duo came out to the deafening roar of ‘No Type’. Their set was the perfect redemption to the slow’s initial slow start. Swae and Jxmmi kept the high energy in place for over an hour — playing hits like ‘No Flex Zone’, ‘Perplexing Pegasus’ and ‘Come Get Her’, and even performing some of Swae’s features such as Post Malone’s ‘Sunflower’ and French Montana’s ‘Unforgettable’. Having moved from Red Hill, Villa’s tighter spaces added extra atmosphere to the set, and the pair didn’t even have to sing their songs as the crowd was already doing it for them.

Loving the Australian culture, the pair changed up the song’s lyrics to fit “Perth Australia” — and even did a shoey! ‘Black Beatles’ was one of their biggest for the night, making the best out of the venue with added pyrotechnics. The pair were interacting with the crowd all night, getting girls up on stage to dance along to ‘Guatemala’ and even creating a mosh circle in the already cramped crowd. Although the pair could have encored with a more recognised song to finish the night, they successfully carried out one of the best performances I’ve ever witnessed. A splendid way to end the event, for sure.