Abdul Karim (seventh left) and others pose in front of the festival entrance in Carpenter Street.
KUCHING: The ongoing 17th Kuching Inter-cultural Mooncake Festival 2018 at Carpenter Street and Ewe Hai Street here has managed to attract about 70,000 visitors from all walks of life for the past four days.
“The event, which stressed the obvious inter-cultural exchange in terms of the many races we have in Kuching particularly has now also included the element of a cultural exchange amongst the age groups as well,” Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said when officiating at the festival on Friday night. Abdul Karim was representing Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud at the event.
The festival organised by The Federation of Kuching Division Community Associations Sarawak runs from Sept 17-24 and opens from 6pm to 11pm.
A press release from the festival organiser said the inter-cultural event aimed to foster and strengthen existing relationship between the Malays from across the Sarawak River and the predominantly Chinese residents and businesses in the Old Market area here.
The organiser also expressed the hope that this year’s event will break the previous attendance record of 98,000 set in seven days.
Brunei and Indonesia consuls who attended the ceremony were happy to note that traders from their countries were also taking part in this year’s festival and shared that they intended to hold such event in their respective homeland.
The organising committee said that it plans to have a bigger international participation next year after receiving positive feedback from the consuls.