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20-23 July 2001

Images of the Festival

It’s Festival time again at the Sarawak Cultural Village from the 20th-22nd of July. Over the weekend from Friday to Sunday, we have planned what we hope, will be something for everyone.

Musicians from all 5 continents of the world will be arriving from the 17th so look out for them all around town as they will be doing mini concerts at various night spots and schools or institutions.

The evening shows on all 3 nights , of course, are the highlights of the festival. Each night opens with thunderous drums from different ethnic communities the Iban, the Chinese and the Bidayuh.

On Friday, world beat group SAYU ATENG from Sarawak starts and is followed by the amazing throat singing musicians from Mongolia BOERTE. This is the first time ever such a group has ever been to Sarawak. Their music is an appealing blend of their ancient art and instruments with techno-jazz.

Then, there will be the BIDAYUH and IBAN performers, also a rarely heard gong orchestra by the BISAYAH. The tempo speeds up after that with a trio from Columbia and Venezuela LOS LLANEROS with music from the cowboys and savannahs of South America. That will warm you up to get ready to dance with the colourful and exciting BADENYA a family of griots from Burkina Faso.

Saturday starts off with blessings to Mother Earth as KANENHIIO, a group of 5 women who represent the Mohawk tribe from Native Canadian First Nation’s People, bring you their songs and their hopes. JERRY KAMIT follows with a modern look at the electric sape. One-armed valiha player RAJERY and his band from Madagascar perform soulful Malagasy tunes just before the intermission.

BOERTE appears with a different programme set from Friday, and then the talented JUDY SONG takes over with her 5-drum special. And the band everyone has been asking for since the 1999 festival - the 6 fierce Scotsmen of SHOOGLENIFTY.

Sunday will be full of spontaneous surprises. The gentle lull of the GAMELAN ENSEMBLE from Kampung Jawa comes just before the COULIBALY BROTHERS join up with other percussionists for a rousing frenzy of percussion and drums.

OK! RYOS from the gentle tropical islands of New Caledonia in the South Pacific will be one of the biggest bands at this year’s festival. The ORANG ULU group after them will be represented by the Kenyahs and the Penans.

A new concoction called the STRING ROJAK will, for the moment, stay a secret! The fest ends with SETONA, a magnetic woman and her men from electrifying Sudan.

In past festivals, the climax has seemed to be the FINALE where all the musicians get on stage and jam their hearts out. This year is no exception so expect an explosion of sound on Sunday night!

There will be a World Music Disco after every night’s performance for the die-hards who might still have steam left in them after the shows.

But don’t just come up to the Cultural Village for the evenings. Some of the most fascinating things will be happening from 2.00 to 4.00 every afternoon of the 3 days.

The "workshops" of the Rainforest Festival have somehow become the soul of this event in the past few years. You will be able to find them all around the longhouses of the Sarawak Cultural Village, flanked by either lake, jungle or mountain.

There will be interactive dance sessions the upbeat JOROPO of the South Americans, PENAN, BIDAYUH and IBAN dances, the BELIAN DADO of the Kenyahs, as well as AFRICAN DANCES with members of Badenya. You can also sit in a circle with the Native Canadians and sing the ancient songs with KANENHIIO and their water drums.

There will be FOLKSONGS and STORY TELLING from around the world on all 3 days.

Workshops specially geared for children (though I suspect many adults will want to attend as well!) like SOUTHERN SOUNDS where they will join Los Llaneros in singing Latin American songs and making rhythms together, and HIT ME WITH YOUR RHYTHM STICK! , a percussion session with the festival musicians, will run on Saturday and Sunday. We are encouraging all to bring your own instruments if you wish so it will be like a great party.

There will be little gems of performances like 2 members of Shooglenifty in BUSKING IN EDINBURGH; or a capella (unaccompanied) songs from the Loyalty Island with OK! Ryos in STRAINS OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC; and the unbelievable art of umzad and khoomei in DEEP THROATS with Boerte.

If you want an eclectic mixture of exotic instruments, then head for KEYBOARD KALEIDOSCOPE where the balaphone, jatung lutang, engkremong and akkordean will come together; HEAVY METALS for the gongs, saxophone and bishguur; PLUCK! PLUCK! for the arabic oud, harp, the Mexican jarana & vihuela, cuatro, the African n’goni & valiha ,Mongolian yatga, Sarawak sape& rhetong, banjo and mandolin; BOWS AND REEDS for the fiddle, morin khur & bischguur of the Mongolians, nose flutes, serunai & enchio of Sarawak and quena of S. America.

There will be informative demonstrations and insights into the HENNA & MUSLIM WEDDING TRADITIONS OF SUDAN with Setona, who will also be manning a stall for this at the Village Mart alongside the more permanent tattooing by Borneo artistes! Gini Gorlinski along with Adat Isti’adat will be hosting a showcase of ORANG ULU instruments.

Special Sarawak features will be like BORNEO BAMBOO where you will see and hear flutes, zithers and drums, SARAWAK SCENES where members of Sayu Ateng will sing witty songs of well-known and not so well known characters of Borneo, and SAPE SUNSETS at the Orang Ulu Longhouse.

If you see a lot of men flocking to the Malay House on Friday afternoon, that would be THE WOMEN’S ROOM with all the ladies from the festival! Equality will be achieved on Saturday with MEN AT WORK at the Orang Ulu Longhouse.

Percussion workshops are always popular look out for RHYTHM WITHOUT A DRUM on Friday and BEAT IT! on Saturday. The 3 African groups get together in THE COLOURS OF AFRICA. Four sets of siblings can be found at DOUBLE TROUBLE on Sunday.

The list goes on! Altogether, there will be 31 events over the three afternoons. 3-4 workshops will be running concurrently at any one time so get the schedules early and choose carefully.

And if you miss any of them? Well - you’ll just have to wait till the next festival !!

Yeoh Jun Lin
Head of Programme
Rainforest World Music Festival