Festival gives arena to all

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

As the sun passed overhead into afternoon on Saturday, hundreds of people swarmed Jl. Sumenep in Menteng, Central Jakarta, to enjoy the two-day Street Art Festival.

Feature performances offered mostly street bands singing original songs about the poor, injustice and other thematic renditions of their lives, with key messages regarding globalization.

"The event provides space for artists, some of them street musicians, to perform. We also want to do an anti-globalization campaign," said Botol, a member of the Nurani Senja underground community of Jakarta, which organized the festival.

The occasion provided participating artists with an opportunity to perform and sell products, from self-made T-shirts to indie records, as well as to mingle with their counterparts from the provinces.

Punklung, a six-member group featuring the calung, a Sundanese bamboo instrument, found the cheapest bus route available and traveled for four hours from Bandung to Jakarta to the gathering.

"We don't expect to make any money by performing here, but it would be great if we could go home by train, as it is more comfortable," Punklung musician Gembok said with a grin.

"Where are we staying tonight? Well, we haven't thought about that. We may not sleep at all," fellow musician Ua said.

Other underground artists traveled from farther away, including Bali, Makassar in South Sulawesi and Medan in North Sumatra, paying their own way to make the event, as the organizers did not have a budget for travel expenses.

The festival even drew the likes of Duta, frontman of noted pop group Sheila on 7, who dropped by as a visitor.

"Welcome Duta. Will you perform? Please, join us, but watch out for your wallet," the master of ceremony joked.

Leaving the street musicians and artists to bask in the spotlight, Duta simply smiled and watched the performances.

"We provide basic stalls for free to those who want to sell their crafts here," Botol said.

He added that the festival, which last took place in 1999, was sponsored mainly by the Institute for Global Justice (IGJ), and was organized jointly by IGJ, the Urban Poor Consortium, Yogyakarta-based arts and culture organization Taring Padi and Nurani Senja.