(From right) Angelina, Bob, Alena Murang and Drago of Radio Sraka during the interview at the booth.
KUCHING: Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) and their representatives attended this year’s World Music Expo (Womex) in Poland from Oct 25 to 29 to promote Sarawak’s Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF).
Attending this 23rd edition of Womex were STB director of events, Angelina Bateman, event manager Sarren Michael and RWMF artistic director Jun Lin Yeoh promoting RWMF among the international crowd.
“Sarawak’s unique culture and music truly shone during Womex, supporting the fact that there is no better destination for an event celebrating the uniqueness of world music from many different lands than Sarawak and the RWMF,” said Angelina.
The Expo was attended by local musician and artiste Alena Murang and musician Eldrick Udos or ‘Bob’ from the band At Adau, both of them having performed at the RWMF and are impassioned supporters of maintaining and passing on the Bornean cultural heritage.
They participated in Womex to promote Sarawak’s cultural music as well as their own brand, while networking with attending key players in the World Music industry.
“This is a big step that has been given to us from At Adau and mainly Sarawak to build the bridge across the world to help achieve our objective of enlightening the world about the beauty and uniqueness of Sarawakian music, arts and culture,” Bob said after participating in the Expo.
Bob was excited about his opportunity to discuss strategies and future prospects with some big names in world music such as artistic director of Mundial Montreal Derek Andrews, and Indigenous Music, Canada, Kaushik Dutta; Derek Andrews, CEO/artistic director of Song of Soul Festival in Kolkata, India; and Alejandro Orellana, programmer and coordinator of Womad The World’s Festival, Chile.
During this Expo, Angelina alongside Alena and Bob were interviewed by Drago Vovk of Radio Sraka, one of the most popular radio stations broadcasting from Novo Mesto, Slovenia.
The 21st edition of the RWMF will take place at Sarawak Cultural Village next year on July 13 to 15.