DKI Jakarta Provincial Government Establishes Special Team to Prepare for 500th Anniversary Celebrations

JAKARTA — The Jakarta Provincial Government will form a special team to prepare for the city’s 500th anniversary celebration in 2027. The team will be responsible for planning and executing a series of major events throughout the anniversary year.

Deputy Governor Rano Karno stated that the working team will be established coinciding with this year’s 499th anniversary celebration. He emphasised the need for early preparation due to the international scale of the events planned for the 500th anniversary. The provincial government has already prepared a full-year event calendar to mark the city’s half-millennium milestone.

‘Why create this calendar? Because we’re not just involving local Indonesian participants but also inviting international guests,’ Karno added.

One of the planned events is the development of the Indonesian World Dance Festival (IWDF) into a global platform featuring participants from multiple continents. ‘For instance, the IWDF will be a world-class event. Currently, it might only include South Korea, but in future, we could have five performances from five continents — perhaps two from Africa, two from Europe, two from Asia. We can source participants from Thailand, Japan, South Korea, but I’m confident there will be strong competition,’ he said.

Karno revealed he recently returned from Milan, Italy, to prepare an international event for the anniversary, though he declined to disclose details. ‘I apologised for my recent absence as I was in Milan preparing for next year’s events, even though the announcement will be made in Tokyo. That means we must start preparations now,’ he added.

He hopes the anniversary celebration will not merely be a city birthday party but an opportunity to showcase Jakarta to the world through international events involving numerous countries.