Jakarta Fair visitors want more cultural performances

Jakarta Fair visitors want more cultural performances

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Doni drove dozens of kilometers from his house in Tangerang to
Central Jakarta, expecting to see some traditional Betawi (native
Jakartan) performances at the annual Jakarta Fair.

But he felt dissatisfied as he could only see dangdut and some
live pop bands at the fair.

"When I was a child, I came to the fair to see cultural
performances, such as the lenong, Betawi comedy skits, or
traditional Betawi music. But now, such performances are rare.
People are here only to shop," the 35-year-old told The Jakarta
Post on Wednesday.

Doni was not the only one of the more than 30,000 visitors
that had converged on the Jakarta Fair 2005 that night, who felt
that from year to year, the fair had been losing its cultural
roots, and instead focusing more on pop culture shows and
business activities.

This year, the various consumer goods offered by more than 830
companies on the 44-hectare fairground are dominating the month-
long exhibition, diverting visitors' attention from the few
cultural performances at a handful of cultural sites, such as
Kampung Betawi, a replica of an old Jakartan village and the
stands of each of the country's 32 provinces.

Some visitors seemed to feel that the Kampung Betawi
functioned merely as a decoration because it did not offer as
many kinds of traditional cultural performances as they expected.

"I came from the entrance which directly enters the Kampung
Betawi area, but I didn't see any traditional Betawi
performances. And I couldn't feel the traditional touch of the
site," said Indah, one of the visitors from Cilacap, West Java,
who came at around 8 p.m.

On weekdays, traditional performances take place at Kampung
Betawi from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., while the bulk of visitors do not
show up until after 8 p.m. By that time, traditional Gambang
Kromong and Reog Betawi performances, have already given way to
local pop bands and singers.

PT Jakarta International Expo (JIExpo), the organizer of the
fair, has announced its intention to boost the economic activity
at the fair with the expectation of raking in up to Rp 400
billion worth of transactions this year, an increase of about 3
percent compared to last year's total of Rp 389 billion.

"We want to have good quality visitors coming in, so the
transactions for business and the participants will be quite
high," said Ralph Scheunemann, the fair's project director.

He added that such visitors had contributed to the total of
100 billion in transactions made in the first five days.

"I just talked to one of the participants here: car and
motorcycle producer Suzuki. They said that as of Tuesday, they
had already sold 90 cars. Competitors Toyota sold 15 and Kia 40,"
Scheunemann said, while adding that the exact figures would not
be out until next week.

The sales supervisor for Honda motorcycles, Didi Purwanto,
confirmed Scheunemann's statement, saying that his stand had
already sold 300 bikes, valued between Rp 13 million and Rp 30
million, over the first five days.

But Scheunemann added that even though the JIExpo was focusing
on increased business revenues, the organizer would also
entertain people by holding music and fireworks shows. The latter
held every two weeks on weekends.

The 32-day fair also features popular Indonesian singers and
groups, such as Agnes Monica, Glenn Fredly, Slank and Syaharani.
(006)