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)