Festivals promote Jakarta as regional cultural capital

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Behind the visible poverty, endless traffic jams and nauseating polluted air, Jakarta has hidden treasures that are unrivaled by other big cities in the country, and possibly even in Southeast Asia.

They go together to make up the city's arts and culture scene.

Jakarta has a wide range of arts and cultural events, both of national and international importance, that have been thriving while gaining support from an increasingly wider audience, both from Jakarta and outside the city.

In addition to the older festivals, this year saw two new arrivals: the Urban Festival, or Urbanfest 2007, and the Jakarta International Photo Summit 2007.

The Urban Festival, a two-day festival in late August, involved a list of events, mostly beginning with the word "urban": Urban Distro, Urban Photo Exhibition, Urban Dancing, Urban Tattoo, Face Painting, Local Comics Exhibition and many others.

Held at the Ancol Dream Park in North Jakarta, the maiden Urban Festival did not gain much recognition. However, it is too soon to say it was a flop.

The ten-day Jakarta International Photo Summit 2007, from Dec. 3 to Dec. 13, also did not see many people turning up at the National Gallery in Central Jakarta. However, the curators and the summit's promoters, Oscar Motuloh and Alexander Supartono, still plan to hold the summit once every three years.

The summit itself boasted 150 images from international art photographers.

On top of the newcomers, the city has a list of established festivals, national and international, big and small. One of the most popular is the Jakarta International Film Festival, or Jiffest.

Now in its 9th year, the festival is seeing growing audiences, number of movies screened, and, perhaps most importantly, popularity, and is increasingly attracting visitors from outside Jakarta.

The smaller Q! Film Festival has also thrived by creating its own niche. The Sixth Q! Film Festival's organizers reported a growth in audience numbers this year.

Besides Jiffest, the more commercial and glamorous Java Jazz festival is also gaining greater popularity.

Meanwhile, the community-based and longer-standing Jakarta International Jazz Festival, or JakJazz, is also showing a determination to survive by staging its second revival after years of hiatus. This year's festival received a warm reception from jazz buffs around the country.

These festivals are only a few of the many cultural and arts festivals in Jakarta.

Some of the festivals are initiated by young people who only have dreams, extensive networks, cultural capital and marketing skills to work on, but little money.

Names like Shanty Harmayn and John Badalu, for example, are household names among the country's film buffs.

Besides the large festivals, young people are also at the forefront of smaller exhibitions and performances. Communities like Ruang Rupa and those hanging out at the Aksara Record also help shape the city as a cultural capital of the region.

Not only as initiators. Young Jakartans also contribute to shaping Jakarta as a cultural capital by being enthusiastic supporters of the festivals. Among audiences, young Jakartans in their 20s and early 30s are predominant.

They are hip, trendy and have tastes that differ from the mainstream. They belong at least to the middle-income bracket and are mostly university educated, whether at home or abroad.

Without them, these festivals would not exist or thrive. And without these festivals, Jakarta would be just another dirty, overcrowded city.

"As far as I know, Jiffest, for example, was the best in Southeast Asia. Last year, it attracted 63,000 enthusiasts with funding of US$500,000. Meanwhile, the Bangkok Film Festival cost US$5 million and attracted only 23,000 people. And I don't even want to compare Jiffest with festivals in Singapore or Manila; they're not in the same league," said Marco Kusumawijaya, an urban planning expert and chairman of the Jakarta Arts Council.

Marco added that although Jakarta lagged behind Singapore in infrastructural development, the Indonesian city was awash with artists.

He complained, however, that the festivals received little support from the government.

"Actually, the more independent a festival, the better it is. However, the city should see such festivals as investments. They attract visitors who spend money in hotels and restaurants in the city," Marco said. "The city administration should set targets in return for its financial support; a festival gets some funding but has to attract so many people from abroad, for example."

Some festivals in 2007

Festival Time, frequency Organized by

• Java Jazz March, annual Private
• Q! Film Festival Aug.-Sept. annual Private
• Arts Summit Nov. triennial Ministry of Culture
• Konfiden Short November, annual Jakarta Arts Council, Konfiden
• Jiffest December annual Private supported by city Jakarta International Photo Summit (December, triennial) Private
• JakJazz (November, annual) Private
• International Literary Biennial (August, biennial) Private
• Urbanfest (August, planned to be annual) Private
• Jakarta Theater Festival (December, annual) Jakarta Arts Council
• Schouwburg Festival (September, annual) City
• Jakarta Anniversary Festival (June, annual) City