Pasar Baru Festival, joyous event for all

JAKARTA (JP): The sound of drums being beaten incessantly was heard all over the Pasar Baru (New Market) shopping area in Central Jakarta on Monday afternoon.

In between, every five seconds or so, there was the clash of cymbals, and also the sound of traditional gongs.

Children, parents, shop owners and visitors then ran quickly toward the source of the sounds.

It was a group of barongsai (traditional Chinese dragon dance) dancers who were ready to take action.

Wearing white T-shirts and red pants, they held aloft a colorful dragon that undulated along the alley, while their friends played the instruments.

Several shop owners also invited them inside their shops where they performed a little. After that, they received red envelopes containing some money.

"It is believed that staging a barongsai dance inside the shops will bring good luck," Stefanus, one of the dancers, told The Jakarta Post.

Stefanus and his friends, who called themselves the Deponadaindo Club, were especially invited by Central Jakarta mayoralty to liven up the Pasar Baru festival, a two-day event which started on Sunday.

The festival is part of the month-long celebrations for the city's anniversary that actually falls on June 22.

Pasar Baru was appropriately chosen to host such an event as it is known as a melting pot for Chinese and Indian Jakartans, as well as Betawi people (native Jakartans).

The event took place along an alley inside the market, which is about 600 meters long, from Jl. Pos to Jl. Dr. Sutomo, in front of it and also on the Ciliwung river which runs alongside these streets.

The area looked festive, with eye-catching decorations like kites, dolls and ribbons everywhere to be seen.

This year's festival is the second to be held in the area.

According to head of the organizing committee Bambang Sugiono, the festival is a joint effort between Central Jakarta mayoralty and local businesspeople from the Association of Indonesian Retailers (Aprindo).

"It is also aimed at promoting the area as a tourist destination," said Bambang, who is also the mayor's assistant for development administration.

Beside barongsai, a series of events were also held, such as dangdut (traditional music) concert, a boat-decorating exhibition, canoeing competition, and performances by a tanjidor, a traditional Betawi orchestra.

On Monday, the tanjidor group, Pusaka Tiga Saudara from Kali Sari, Pasar Rebo in East Jakarta, comprised 12 musicians playing trumpets, trombones, beduk and tambur (a type of drum).

According to Maahpiye, 44, the leader of the group, they are among three remaining groups playing original tanjidor in the capital. The other two groups came from Cijantung, also East Jakarta, and South Jakarta, he told the Post.

He said he had played in the group since 1972, as part of a family tradition.

"The youngest in our group is 19 years old, while the oldest is 65," Maahpiye asserted.

Every June, the city's anniversary, the group received many requests to play, sometimes as many as 20 invitations. They charged from Rp 1.5 million (US$136.4) to Rp 2 million per performance.

"Today, we performed twice," Maahpiye said, smiling.

"But sometimes we don't get any jobs at all in a whole month. At that time, most of us work as security guards," he added.

Local residents and shop owners looked very pleased with the festival and the performances.

Another event held at the festival was a free kite workshop held by Le Gong kite shop and kite event organizer. The workshop is a part of JakArt@2001 art festival which starts this month.

The workshop attracted dozens of children who quickly signed up to get the material to make kites. Happily and intensely, they folded paper, cut it, glued it and colored it, transforming it into kites.

And then they ran around the place, tried to fly them.

"I like playing with kites. But I have to go as far as the National Monument (Monas) to play with mine," said Inggang, 11, a fifth-grade dropout.

Inggang suffered a nosebleed as he became so enthusiastic to sign up for the workshop that he bumped into his friend.

Such a shame that there are not enough spaces for these innocent children to play in this big bad city. (hdn)