Annual Nusa Dua Festival set to kick off
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.