KUCHING: Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) is presenting the 20th instalment of its annual event, the Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) at World Music Expo (WOMEX) in Santiago de Compostela, Spain from Oct 20-23.
The RWMF will be celebrating its 20th edition next year at the Sarawak Cultural Village in Damai, on July 14-16, with plans on making the festival celebration bigger than ever.
Through its interactive afternoon workshops, the audience has the opportunity to learn, understand and play the indigenous musical instruments used by performers during the day and later on, witness and appreciate the music’s beauty during the nightly performances.
As supporters of all ethnic arts, including the culinary arts, festival-goers are able to taste a variety of local and fusion cuisine from the Village Food Mart.
They will also be able to buy local beaded, woven, painted or carved handicrafts or witness their creation, or even get a traditional hand-tapped tattoo at the nearby Tattoo Expo.
The festival, the only one of its kind in the region, has attracted over 20,000 returning foreign and domestic visitors and has been awarded Songlines’ Top 25 Best International Festivals award six years in a row since 2010.
“We want to stage the uniqueness of world music by bringing in performers from other parts of the world and also to showcase our own ethnic music and to provide them with an opportunity to perform amidst international bands,” said STB chairman Datuk Abdul Wahab Aziz.
“More innovative ideas are already in the works for our coming 20th Rainforest World Music Festival next year,” said STB director of events and corporate relations Angelina Bateman.
While the performance plans remain a surprise, the board’s efforts in publicising the Festival are not, with promotions happening at various tourism and travel trade fairs around the world such as ITB Asia in Singapore, World Travel Mart in London, Taipei International Travel Fair in Taiwan and the Asian MICE Forum in Taiwan.
The RWMF encourages the appreciation of ethnic art and music from around the world, as well as new interpretations and integration of those arts within modern expression, and it is now bringing these values to the world stage.
Updates on the festival as well as tickets can be found online at the Rainforest World Music Festival official website, www.rwmf.net.
This event is supported by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia, Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Sarawak (MTAC) and endorsed by Tourism Malaysia with Malaysia Airlines Berhad as the presenting sponsor.