Annual Nusa Dua Festival set to kick off

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, The Jakarta Post, Nusa Dua

The annual Nusa Dua Festival, which is set to open on Friday afternoon, is expected to promote the country's art and culture, sports, and entertainment, and will also feature a local and international culinary exhibition.

The festival, scheduled to run from Sept. 9 to Sept. 17, boasts various features that have successfully attracted thousands of domestic and overseas visitors every year since it was first held nine years ago in l997.

This year -- in cooperation with event organizer Bintang Convex, PT Bali Tourism Development Cooperation (BTDC), the company that oversees the Nusa Dua resort complex -- the festival is expected to attract more visitors than ever.

I Made Mandra, president director of PT BTDC, said thousands of artists, athletes and members of the community would take part in various interesting events, including Peed Agung, a colorful parade of hundreds of girls wearing royal Balinese dress, which would take place during the opening ceremony.

Other events would include the Nusa Dua 10K marathon, art exhibitions, bird singing contests, a deep-sea fishing competition, a beach soccer competition, a game of chess featuring human chessmen, a parade of floats, international food and wine bazaar, a chess competition, beach parties and many other interesting activities.

"We expect that hundreds of participants will take part in the Nusa Dua 10K," Mandra said.

One unique event will be a chess game in which two grand masters -- Eugene Torre and Utut Adianto -- will compete in a game employing human chessmen wearing lavish, traditional Balinese costumes.

The chess game, to be recorded by the Indonesian Museum of Records (MURI), will be accompanied by Balinese gamelan music and dances.

"The festival is aimed at promoting Bali as a safe and attractive tourist destination, particularly the Nusa Dua resort," Mandra said.

Developed in the early l980s, the once dry and barren Nusa Dua peninsula was designed to be Bali's most exclusive resort where luxury villas and five-stars hotel are geared towards those tourists prepared to spend a little extra.

The relatively isolated complex has become one of Bali's greenest areas, with hundreds of star-rated hotels, exhibition and conference centers, and an international golf course.

Yet, the rapid growth of other tourist destinations in Bali over the last 10 years has rendered Nusa Dua somewhat less glittering. Thus, the festival is intended to reinvigorate tourism, business and cultural activities in the resort complex.