Pelabuhan Ratu puts best face on for cultural festival

JAKARTA (JP): Preparations are underway for a special week of festivities at the Pelabuhan Ratu coastal area in West Java.

Locals have started sprucing up the district as they ready to host the first Palabuhan Ratu Festival, to open this Saturday.

Several hotels are also preparing to welcome both local and foreign tourists expected to attend the festival through Dec. 27 to watch traditional performances and more.

Organizing official, Susilawati, said the event was scheduled to be opened by a cultural procession, Palabuhan Ratu Manggung Mandiri.

This ceremony is intended to thank God and Ratu Rara Kidul, the supernatural ruler of the southern sea, for the agricultural good harvest and an ample fishing catch, she said.

But unlike the annual Fishermen's Day every April, the festival will not be limited to traditional performances and attractions.

"The festival will also hold week-long exhibitions and sport events," Susilawati of the Sukabumi tourist agency told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

There will demonstrations on making local handicrafts and foods by cottage industries, and sport of cycling, white-water rafting, jet skiing and beach volleyball.

The area has become known for its Fishermen's Day ceremony. It mostly involves fishermen who pay their respects to Ratu Rara Kidul by delivering offerings, such as a bull's head and a giant turtle.

Under next week's plan, the festival will be opened by the procession featuring dancers and guards dressed in traditional Sundanese attire of West Java, accompanied by musicians playing angklung -- a traditional musical instrument made of bamboo -- and drums, tambourines and trumpets.

The festival's organizer has scheduled numerous cultural performances and attractions to draw both local and foreign tourists.

"Several hotels are participating in this festival," said Susilawati.

Featured attractions will include the Upacara Seren Taun, a ceremony where farmers show their gratitude for a good harvest by demonstrating paddy planting. This will be held Dec. 21 at Citepus beach.

A celebration of the sea, Upacara Pesta Laut, will have fishermen showing off their skills at Karang Hawu beach on Dec. 24.

The following day at the Samudra Beach Hotel there will be the Parebut Seeng attraction, featuring a "bride" and her "groom" fighting over a seeng traditional handmade rice cooker.

Other events include a mask dance and leather and wooden puppet shows.

Cycling will be held from Samudra Beach Hotel to Cibangban on Dec. 21, jet skiing the same day at the Pondok Dewata and Cibangkan beaches, and white-water rafting at the Citarik river on Dec. 23.

Beach volleyball is planned at the Samudra Beach Hotel on Dec. 24, surfing the same day at the Cimaja beach and a traditional fishing contest the following day at Citepus beach.

Another cultural procession is scheduled to close the event on Dec. 27. (ste)