Sarawak is endowed with beautiful rainforests. The idea of using the majestic rainforest as a backdrop for an

Photograph of A Sarawak Tourism Board Poster
international music festival was conceptualized in 1997. Since then The Rainforest World Music Festival was been held annually with music workshops held in the afternoons and evenings, as well as concerts held during the night. A diverse group of musicians, dancers and performers from all over the world have performed.

Together with an excited crowd of about 10,000 concert goers, my wife and I went to the Sarawak Cultural Village, the venue for the music festival on 7 August 2016. This venue is very unique as it is located next to a beach with the rainforest and the mountains in the background. First we were off to a percussion workshop which was conducted using a variety of traditional musical instruments from various countries such as Bodhran (ancient Irish framedrum), Gendang (two headed hand drum from Malaysia/Indonesia), Tabla (from India which is similar to Bongos), T'rung (bamboo xylophone from Vietnam) and Kebero (double headed drum from Africa). The fusion of music was electic , vibrant and harmonious. There were various workshops on topics such dance, sape (a traditional lute of the upriver tribe of Borneo) and bowed string instruments which were conducted simultaneously. We also took our dinner there as well as there are many food stalls including stalls selling local delicacies such as ayam panush (chicken cooked in bamboo), satay (meat skewers), laksa (virmicelli cooked in shrimp based broth together with cocnut milk), kersem (fermented pork) and tuak (rice wine)

Layout of Sarawak Cultural Vilage (Image Source http://rwmf.net)

The percussion workshop "Make A Noise " in session

The crowd that day had a great time enjoying the good music. The audience was dancing and swaying to the music. The group that performed that night include Broukar from Syria, Violons Barbares (from Bulgaria, Mongolia and France), Chouk Bwa Libete from Haiti, Gendang Melayu Sri Buana from Borneo itself and Auli from Latvia. There was also a lot of interactions between the crowd. The easy going natives of Sarawak mixed freely amongst the locals and the tourists. The spirit of the music festival can be captured in the video.

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Broukar: Whirling Dervish Dance To Sufi Music
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Chouk Bwa Libete: Traditional roots music band with elements of Haitian Vodou rhythm and dance
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Violons Barbares: Combination Of Mongolian Violin, Bulgarian Gadulka and Percussion
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Gendang Melayu Sri Buana: Joget dance which is usually performed during weddings
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Auli: Bagpipes melody accompanied by drums
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Broukar posing with fans

Violons Barbares signing autographs

The crowd having a good time
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Every year thousands of tourists and music lovers flew into Kuching specifically to attend this music festival as this is a unquie festival with performers from all over the world. I look forward to attend the Rainforest World Music Festival in 2017 which will be held on 14-16 July 2017 . For more information on this Music Festival please visit this website

Check out my other post on Borneo Adventure

Cheers
Charles

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