Rainforest festival on a high note
Rainforest festival on a high note
Tan Hee Hui, Contributor, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
For various reasons, most Malaysian-organized music festivals
seldom see overwhelming turnouts.
The exception is the Sarawak Tourism Board-organized
Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF), which is now attracting
crowds that run into the five digits.
Already in its eighth year, the RWMF has come a long way.
During its first and second years, only about 400 people
attended the festival. The setup -- from the sound system to the
stage setting -- was pretty basic back then.
The turnouts got bigger over the years and now it is a popular
international music and tourism event.
As in previous years, the three-day festival this year was
held at the Sarawak Cultural Village in picturesque Santubong, a
one-hour drive from Kuching, the capital of Sarawak (Malaysia
Borneo).
The festival is a celebration of musical and cultural
diversity.
This year, 12 foreign acts (who came from as far as Colombia
and Mongolia) and four Malaysian acts performed for 5,000 people
on the first day, 8,000 on the second day and 7,000 on the third
day.
The crowds were a good mix of foreign tourists and Malaysians,
including many veterans from previous festivals.
Due to some problems with overcrowding last year, organizers
capped attendance at 8,000 a day.
There were numerous highlights during the festival, which was
divided into daytime workshops and night concerts.
The festival's visitors included hippies, eccentrics of all
types and the chic and the beautiful. They took part in workshops
held each day at the different Sarawakian ethnic houses scattered
around the village.
The workshops were casual, basic, impromptu and people-
centric. Moreover, they allowed visitors to get up close with the
musicians and performers, who provided insights into their music,
cultures and traditions.
Some visitors even got to play native musical instruments,
some with long traditions passed down through the generations.
The workshops also had their humorous moments. Among them was
when The Foghorn Stringband from the U.S. provided a taste of
their early bluegrass music and taught the audience how to square
dance.
Particularly lively and physical were Ivory Coast's eight-
member group Yelemba D'Abidjan, who rocked the house.
Their strong movements and funky traditional music were
hypnotic. Audience members were still shouting for an encore long
after the show had ended.
The music and dancing of Italy's four-member Acquaragia Drom
featured numerous influences, but still created a distinct
traditional Gypsy flavor in their performances.
When violinist Erasmo Treglia and Jew's harp-player Elia
Ciricillo performed a mock fight-dance sequence, the testosterone
soared in the house. Their machismo shone through their nifty, at
times goofy, moves.
The workshops, loosely deconstructed notes, rhythms, melodies
and beats in unplugged sessions, proved more intimately
entertaining than the proper, carefully choreographed nighttime
concerts.
Mellow traditional music filled the air on the first night of
the festival.
Belize's Florencio Mess and the Maya K'ekchi' Strings'
organic, harp-driven music was lushly melancholic.
Their melodious music was deemed subversive in their home
country when a strong Christian movement thrived there.
The group gave a heartfelt performance, in their spirit of
preserving Mayan culture and music for future generations.
Poland's six-member Shannon came on later to rock the crowd
with their Celtic-tinged music combined with Polish cultural
influences.
There was some irony in the performance, mostly from Polish
Marcin Ruminski's admirably skillful playing of the imminently
Scottish bagpipe, which he played like he stole.
The second night, Pakistan's Faiz Ali Faiz, together with
eight musicians, performed ethereal qaw-wali music characterized
by strong insistent voices, with a small backing chorus,
clapping hands and propulsive percussion. The performance was
soul-stirring and emotionally tumultuous.
On the third night, The Foghorn Stringband only had to make a
passing mention about their music being appropriate for square
dancing, before some of the audience shot up and began kicking up
their heels.
Every year the festival's finale is highly anticipated, but
for some reason it lacked energy and a spontaneous kick this
year.
The coming together of all the musicians and performers to jam
onstage was overly choreographed, unlike previous years where
this final jam bowled over audiences with its earthiness.
Nevertheless, the festival succeeded in entertaining and left
the audience wanting more.
Box
Coming back for more
The RWMF is known for attracting repeat attendees, and this
year was no exception. Here's what several repeat visitors had to
say about this year's festival.
"I attend the festival mostly for the company of people. The
lineup of acts also matter and they are different each year, so
it exposes you to different types of music. I'd attend the
festival next year; doing so is like an annual pilgrimage for
me." -- Joyce Lim (from Malaysia), quality assurance analyst.
"The festival is different each year. I love the performers
who come from around the world, their diversity and their
combination of old and new musical instruments and music. This
year, the festival is well-organized with better lighted walkways
around the village. I'd absolutely return to the festival again
-- money permitted." -- Jill Turley (from New Zealand),
journalist
"In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, heck around the Southeast Asia
region, there's nothing like it. The festival's headliners are
world class. However, this year's acts performed more mellow than
upbeat music, unlike what I heard when I attended the festival
two years ago. Regardless, this year's acts are good. I'd attend
the festival next year and after as well, because it has good
vibes." -- Dylan Ong (from Malaysia), conservationist.