Pantura Festival in dire need of promotion

Yusuf Susilo Hartono, Contributor, Jakarta

In this era of regional autonomy, even organizing an art festival is not an easy thing to do.

The 2002 West Java North Coast Cultural Festival, or the Pantura Festival, experienced some problems while trying to bring together traditional arts, and tourist and sports activities from five regencies -- Cirebon, Subang, Indramayu, Bekasi and Karawang -- in the province, plus the Cirebon mayoralty.

Originally, the festival was to be held in the Cirebon mayoralty. But brimming with the spirit of autonomy, the regencies opposed this idea, opting instead to hold the festival in their own areas, the better to show off their own traditional arts.

In the end, it was decided the festival would begin in Cirebon and then be followed by local festivals in the different regencies.

The festival opened in the Cirebon mayoralty on June 27 and lasted through June 27. Then in the Cirebon regency, the festival ran from July 13 to July 15; in Subang from Sept. 1 to Sept. 9, Indramayu from Sept. 6 to Sept. 8; in Bekasi from July 20 to July 31; and in Karawang from Sept. 15 to Sept. 18.

The opening ceremony of the festival itself was highlighted by three events organized by different committees.

The first event was the helaran, a street carnival that took place in several locations around the city, from the Cirebon City Hall to Kasepuhan Palace. It featured various folk art performances from the northern coastal areas, such as the Buroq from Cirebon, Rampak Kendang and Engrang from Karawang and a traditional wedding ceremony from Bekasi.

The festival was opened by West Java Governor HR Nuriana. It also marked the start of West Java Off-Road Adventure, which saw 83 vehicles head to the tourist spot of Ciater.

Then there was an exhibition of handicraft products, traditional food and traditional performances at Kejaksan Square near the Ataqwa Grand Mosque in Cirebon mayoralty.

At the Haj center, volunteers and arts workers prepared various traditional performances, a documentary film screening, seminars and an exhibition.

Unfortunately, these events generally failed to draw people's attention simply because there was not enough promotion, such as the lack of banners placed around the city. In the city center, such as Kejaksan Square, banners promoting the festival were covered by cigarette advertisements from the event's sponsors. News of the festival also did not make it onto the front pages, since most newspapers devoted most of their space to the World Cup.

Even an influential paper in Jakarta criticized the organization of the festival. This Jakarta newspaper reported that the deputy speaker of Cirebon city council, Sunaryo HW, regretted organizing the festival, which cost a huge amount of money but did not turn out as expected due to a lack of promotion. He also criticized the lack of coordination between the central organizing committee and the local committees.

But the comments were played down by the head of the province's culture and tourism office, Memet H. Hamdan. He said the local organizing committees were in charge of the events at their respective areas.

Behind the Pantura Festival, actually, there was a desire to allow the people living in the northern coastal areas to show their identities. After all, the coastal area, historically, has played an important part in the economy, and was home to much social mobility and cultural interactions between different peoples, like those coming from China, India and the West.

Therefore, other regencies which host festivals must seize the moment, learn from past mistakes and improve their promotional efforts.