Welcoming 499th Anniversary, DKI Provincial Government Embraces Citizens Through JFF and Jakarta Fair

Ahead of Jakarta’s 499th anniversary on 22 June 2026, the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government is holding two events involving residents: the Jakarta Future Festival (JFF) 2026 and the Jakarta Fair Kemayoran. JFF serves as a platform for ideas about the city’s future, whilst the Jakarta Fair acts as a space for celebration as well as a driver of the community’s economy. JFF 2026 was held at Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM), Central Jakarta, from 5 to 7 June 2026. The festival, initiated by the DKI Jakarta Regional Development Planning Agency (Bappeda), brought together residents, communities, academics, business players, young people, and policy makers. Over three days, JFF 2026 attracted more than 80,000 visitors. The event featured 52 discussion sessions consisting of 45 Urban Talks and seven Jakarta Forecasts, involved 250 speakers, including 10 international speakers, and showcased 27 music and arts and culture performances. Deputy Governor of DKI Jakarta Rano Karno closed JFF 2026 at Graha Bhakti Budaya, TIM, on Sunday evening (7/6). He said the festival successfully gathered citizens’ ideas whilst strengthening cross-sector collaboration. ‘This festival is not an ordinary meeting, but a platform for presenting ideas. We received a lot of input, and we will collaborate on it in Jakarta’s future development,’ Rano said. JFF 2026 carried the theme ‘Navigating Resilience’. Issues discussed included climate change, water and waste management, housing, renewable energy, tourism, and strategies for building a more resilient and adaptive Jakarta. DKI Jakarta Governor Pramono Anung said the development of Jakarta cannot rely solely on infrastructure. According to him, the city must also make its residents feel comfortable and have a sense of belonging to Jakarta. ‘The most important thing is not only building the infrastructure, but how to make Jakartans feel they own Jakarta. How to make people in Jakarta comfortable,’ Pramono said. Meanwhile, House of Representatives Commission VII member Putra Nababan welcomed the holding of JFF 2026. He said the event could be a container for various parties to filter aspirations from the community. He stated these aspirations could be utilised to produce a formulation for Jakarta’s future development plans. ‘Various stakeholders were involved, including creative economy players, tourism, the younger generation, technocrats, economists, and so on. By making Jakarta more inclusive, especially in capturing and filtering aspirations from the community in formulating future plans,’ Putra Nababan said. He hoped JFF 2026 would produce impactful and influential results for Jakarta’s citizens and nationally. ‘I think forums like this must be maintained, where Jakarta is truly cohesive for all groups. Hopefully, the output and outcome will be impactful and influential for the people of Jakarta and Indonesia,’ he stated. Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Bima Arya expressed a similar sentiment. According to him, strengthening multi-party collaboration is one of the characteristics of a modern city. ‘One of the characteristics of modern cities or future cities is being collaborative and involving many parties and an exchange of ideas that makes the city advanced and continuously developing,’ he explained. He also appreciated the enthusiasm of young people at the event, who appeared keen to share ideas for realising the future city. ‘I was very pleased to see this event, seeing young people, even many Gen Z here, participating in deliberations, exchanging ideas towards the envisioned future of the city,’ he said. The series of Jakarta anniversary events continued with the Jakarta Fair Kemayoran 2026. This multi-product exhibition will be held for 32 days, from 11 June to 12 July 2026, at Jakarta International Expo (JIExpo), Kemayoran, Central Jakarta. This year’s Jakarta Fair carries the spirit of ‘Moving Towards a New Era of Jakarta’, in line with the theme of Jakarta’s 499th anniversary. The event presents product exhibitions, culinary delights, entertainment, and promotion spaces for businesses and MSMEs. Jakarta Fair 2026 will be participated in by 2,800 exhibitors with 1,800 stands or tenants. The composition consists of 55 per cent from the private sector and 45 per cent MSMEs. JIExpo Marketing Director Ralph Scheunemann said this year’s event is targeted to be larger than the previous year. In 2025, Jakarta Fair recorded 5.9 million visitors with a transaction value of IDR 7.3 trillion. ‘We hope this year’s visitors will be above 6 million and perhaps the transactions will also approach IDR 8 trillion,’ Ralph said. Besides product and culinary exhibitions, Jakarta Fair presents amusement rides, carnival parades, fireworks displays, and music concerts. A number of musicians and bands are scheduled to perform, including Slank, Hindia, Sal Priadi, Kotak, J-Rocks, Last Child, Tipe-X, The Changcuters, Fiersa Besari, Juicy Luicy, JKT48, and NDX AKA.