Yogyakarta festival, promosing but underfunded

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

After the much publicized royal wedding, eyes will once again set on Yogyakarta, host of the newly opened 2002 Yogyakarta Arts Festival XIV.

Dubbed as the province's prestigious event, the annual festival, which will end July 7, does not receive the promotion it deserves. No banners or posters welcome the festival or list of the schedule of events in public places are available despite the fact that some 1,500 artists have committed to participate in the month-long-event.

"Promotion has always been our biggest problem due to our limited budget," said chairman of the festival's organizing committee Sumaryono.

The lecturer at Yogyakarta's Indonesian Arts Institute said such a big event ideally needed a Rp 540 million budget. In fact, the local government allocated only Rp 170 million for the event.

Efforts to find more sponsors began early this year but most of the proposals were turned down.

Luckily, many participants are willing to finance their own art activities, contributing some half of the total funds spent for this year's festival. "Some, or around Rp 350 million comes from them. Not in cash of course, but more in supplies or services," Sumaryono said.

Some performers even voluntarily refused to accept payment. In this case, the organizing committee provides a subsidy of between 15 percent and 40 percent of the total funds they need to perform. This excludes those partners that offer some venues for particular events for free.

Some sponsors, too, finance some of the events, including the costly shadow puppet shows presenting well-known shadow puppet masters Ki Timbul Hadiprayitno of Yogyakarta and Ki Manteb Sudarsono of Surakarta, Central Java. Ki Timbul Hadiprayitno will present Arjuna Kalajaya play on July 1, 2002 at Yogyakarta Palace's Pagelaran while Ki Manteb Sudarsono will present Ciptaning Mintaraga on July 7 at the same venue.

Of the festival's arts programs, only the art market could bring in money of some Rp 25 million to the organizing committee.

This year's festival, in fact, can be considered better than previous ones. For example, the organizing committee now provides a website (www.jogja-artsfestival.com) for interested parties to look at for more information about the festival.

The committee also plans to make a report book at the end of the festival to allow people to read it and then provide the committee with feedback for better festivals in the coming years.

A number of special programs in the festival, which takes pluralism as its central theme, includes puppet week, the national kite festival at Parangkusumo beach, Italian doll theater show, multimedia arts exhibition and a collaborative dance performance by Indonesian and Singaporean dancers and choreographers.

According to Sumaryono, the puppet week takes Arjuna, a character in shadow puppet shows, as its central theme. During this program, a wayang exhibition and seminar titled Pengembaraan Arjuna (Arjuna's Wandering) will be held with some experts on wayang and Javanese culture. Puppet masters like Damarjati Supadjar of Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, Kuntara Wiryamartana and Ki Timbul Hadiprayitno are among the speakers.

Unlike last year's festival, which was dominated by music shows, this year's festival restricts it to two forms: the plurality of Nusantara (ethnic) music and klamelan, a mixture of pop and traditional gamelan music.

Other events include modern theater performance, comedy shows, modern dances, fashion show, journalistic photo and painting exhibitions.

Several regencies of Sleman, Bantul, Kulonprogo and Gunungkidul and the Yogyakarta municipality will be given separate schedules to present their traditional performance specialties.

The festival, which was held for the first time in 1989, was initiated by the Yogyakarta Art Board in a bid to strengthen Yogyakarta's status as a cultural city as well as a tourist destination.

It is hoped the festival will improve people's appreciation towards arts and, at the same time, improve the quality and competitiveness of arts.

"The festival now has become a multi-culture forum where local artists do not only meet with counterparts from other provinces but also from abroad," Sumaryono said.

Yogyakarta Arts Festival Agenda (June 7 - July 7, 2002)

* Art market: Benteng Museum, Jl. Ahmad Yani 6 (tel: 0274-586934, 510996), June 7 - July 7, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. * Painting exhibition: Societed Exhibition Building, Jl. Sriwedani 1 (tel: 0274-523512), June 7-21, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. * Batik Fashion Show: Taman Budaya Yogyakarta, Bulaksumur (tel: 0274-561914), June 8, 8 p.m. * Painting Sales: Benteng Museum, Jl. Ahmad Yani 6 (tel: 0274- 586934, 510996), June 9, 16, 23, 30; and July 7, 10 a.m. * Modern art performance, Taman Budaya Yogyakarta's Societed, Jl. Sriwedani 1 (tel: 0274-523512), June 9, 8 p.m. * Italian doll theatre performance: Taman Budaya Yogyakarta's Societed, Jl. Sriwedani 1 (tel: 0274-523512), June 16 and 17, 8 p.m. * World press photo exhibition: Benteng Museum, Jl. Ahmad Yani 6 (tel: 0274-586934, 510996), June 16-22, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. * Nusantara ethnic music performance: Taman Budaya Yogyakarta, Bulaksumur (tel: 0274-561914), June 18, 8 p.m. * Klamelan (pop and gamelan) music performance: Taman Budaya Yogyakarta, Bulaksumur (tel: 0274-561914), June 20, 8 p.m. * Teenage band festival: Taman Budaya Yogyakarta, Bulaksumur (tel: 0274-561914), June 20, 8 p.m. * Singaporean dance performance: Banjarmili Studio, June 21, 8 p.m. * Kite festival: Parangkusumo Beach, June 22-23, 9 a.m. * Multi media art exhibition: Benteng Museum, Jl. Ahmad Yani 6 (tel: 0274-586934, 510996), June 23 - July 7, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. * The Indonesian and Javanese literature (discussion and performance): Yogyakarta State University (UNY), June 29 and 30, 8 p.m. * Theatre performance by Teater Garasi: Sasana Hinggil hall, July 1-3, 8 p.m. * Journalistic photo exhibition: Benteng Museum, Jl. Ahmad Yani 6 (tel: 0274-586934, 510996), July 1-6, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. * Wayang (puppet) exhibition: Yogyakarta Palace's Siti Hinggil hall, July 1-7, 9 a.m. * Shadow puppet show performance: Yogyakarta Palace's Pagelaran, July 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7, 8 p.m. * Seminar on wayang: Gadjah Mada University's School of Literature, July 4, 8:30 a.m * Mataram comedy festival: Taman Budaya Yogyakarta, Bulaksumur (tel: 0274-561914), July 4-5, 8 p.m. * Mataram comedy performance: Taman Budaya Yogyakarta, Bulaksumur (tel: 0274-561914), July 6, 8 p.m. * Closing ceremony: Yogyakarta Palace's Pagelaran, July 7, 8 p.m.