Abdul Karim (right) officiates at the opening ceremony of Pesta Nukenen Bario 2022.
BINTULU (July 29): Pesta Nukenen Bario, the 15th Bario Food and Cultural Festival, is poised to become another major tourism event in Sarawak, adding more colours to the state’s tourism calendar.
According to Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts, and also Minister for Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, the event would put Sarawak in the minds of travellers from all over Malaysia and the world.
“In preserving and celebrating the unique culinary and performance culture of the Kelabits, this event not only serves as a featured tourism event, but more noticeably, acts as a training and testing ground for the highland entrepreneurs to develop new products, build new brands and sell them to wider market segments,” he said at the opening ceremony yesterday.
Citing the growth of the event from year to year, Karim noted its presence as an inspiration for other cultural events throughout Sarawak.
“Pulling off such a significant event like this, in a remote and exotic location like Bario, is a challenging endeavour, one which the Kelabits have accomplished through their ingenuity and community spirit time and time again,” he said, while commending the effort made by the organising committee in organising the festival which runs from July 28 to 30.