Saudi music festival spotlights pre-Islamic heritage

Yahoo – AFP, Anuj Chopra, 20 January 2019

The Qasr al-Farid tomb (The Lonely Castle) carved into rose-coloured sandstone in
Madain Saleh, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Saudi Arabia's Al-Ula governorate

Bathed in light, musicians belt out melodies among pre-Islamic desert ruins in northwestern Saudi Arabia, a heritage trove at the centre of efforts to put the reclusive kingdom on the tourism map.

Hosted by the Al-Ula governorate -- where Nabatean tombs and art are chiseled into caramel-hued rock -- "Winter at Tantora" is the latest music carnival in the Islamic kingdom, where such events were unheard of just two years ago.

Spread over eight weekends until February 9, the main events are hosted in an auditorium made of mirrored glass that has drawn international artists, from Lebanese singer Majida El Roumi to French classical violinist Renaud Capucon.

And it shines a spotlight on a long-isolated area seen widely as an open-air museum.

"Saudi Arabia is turning a new page," said Zainab al-Kadadi, a Riyadh-based banker.

The 29-year-old attended a musical weekend that also included sand dune bashing -- an adventure sport that involves driving across challenging desert landscapes -- and a tour of an Ottoman-era train station.

The new purpose-built Maraya (Arabic for "Mirror") concert hall hosting the first 

"Winter at Tantora" music carnival among the UNESCO World Heritage listed ruins

The festival is seen as a soft opening of Al-Ula, an area roughly the size of Belgium that is being touted as the centrepiece of Saudi attractions, as the conservative petro-state prepares to open up to international tourists.

Building a tourism industry from scratch is at the heart of a government plan to prepare the Arab world's biggest economy for a post-oil era, an ambition fraught with challenges.

The austere kingdom, which forbids alcohol and has a strict social code, is already seen by many as a hard sell for tourists.

Recent events that drew international censure -- notably the gruesome murder last year of critic Jamal Khashoggi and a sweeping crackdown on dissent -- appear to have made the challenge more acute.

"Saudi has great tourism potential, but after what happened it's hard to come here and say 'Everything is wow, everything is amazing'," said a Westerner who was among a group of global social media influencers invited by the kingdom for an all-expenses-paid trip to Al-Ula.

"When I went to collect my (Saudi) visa, my friends joked: 'Hope you return alive!'."

The October 2 murder of Khashoggi, whose body was dismembered by a team of Saudi agents inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate, triggered global outrage.

French solo violinist Renaud Capucon performs with pianists during the music carnival

Kingdom of 'fun'

If Al-Ula were in another country, it would be an easier sell, others in the group suggested.

"The biggest obstacle is stereotypes," said Kyle Mijlof, a 30-year-old travel photographer from Cape Town.

A liberalisation drive by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, has brought new cinemas, concerts and sporting extravaganzas.

While it is yet to offer tourist visas, the country fast-tracked electronic permits for visitors to attend the festival.

The kingdom organised a similar process in December for a motor sports event in Riyadh, where performances by artists like Enrique Iglesias and David Guetta -- and thumping after-parties -- were on offer.

"We live in a Saudi Arabia where by day children may be told that music is forbidden but by night they are taken to music concerts," said a Saudi artist, highlighting a social dichotomy.

A liberalisation drive by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has brought new

cinemas, concerts and sporting extravaganzas

In a country where two-thirds of the population is under 30, amping up entertainment that allows citizens to have fun aims ostensibly to blunt public frustration over an economic downturn and soaring youth unemployment.

"MBS may have borrowed from the playbook of the ancient Roman empire, which hoped 'panem et circenses' –- bread and games -– would be enough to make citizens acquiescent," said Cinzia Bianco, a Middle East analyst at Gulf State Analytics.

"The belief is that if they are engrossed in worries about making money and having fun, they will have no interest in politics and dissent."

'Changing the narrative'

Preparations for the Al-Ula festival "accelerated" after the Khashoggi crisis erupted, as authorities have been keen to turn the page on his murder, a Western consultant close to the organisers told AFP on condition of anonymity.

An official close to the organisers denied that it was a diversionary tactic, saying planning for the festival was in the works well before the murder.

A tourist looks at a formation known as "Elephant rock"

Saudi Arabia is seeking to preserve heritage sites that predate Prophet Mohammed's life in the seventh century.

The sites have long been neglected or vandalised, because glorifying them is considered blasphemous by religious conservatives.

A Taste of the Caribbean in Jakarta, Courtesy of the Dutch

Jakarta Globe, Sylviana Hamdani, September 17, 2015

The 'Antilles Festival – A Taste of the Caribbean' event will take place at the Erasmus
Huis Jakarta from Sept. 19 to Oct. 31 and will feature a photo exhibition, culinary show,
and music and dance performances. (Photo courtesy of Erasmus Huis)

The Dutch cultural center in Jakarta plans to introduce Indonesians to a little-known corner of its kingdom through a festival that celebrates the sun-kissed isles of the Netherlands Antilles.

The “Antilles Festival – A Taste of the Caribbean” event will take place at the Erasmus Huis Jakarta from Sept. 19 to Oct. 31 and will feature a photo exhibition, culinary show, and music and dance performances.

The festival is part of celebrations this year marking the 200th anniversary of the kingdom of the Netherlands, with a focus on the realm’s Caribbean lands deemed an “interesting idea” for residents of Indonesia, once the jewel in the crown of the Dutch empire.

“For the Dutch, it’s not very easy and also not very common to travel [to the Antilles],” said Ferdinand Lahnstein, the deputy head of mission of the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta.

“I expect also that people in Indonesia are not very familiar with this area. So that’s also a reason why we think that it’s probably a good idea to bring forward that there’s something like the Dutch Caribbean. And then hopefully people in Indonesia who would like to try something different will be interested to travel to this area.”

The festival’s photo exhibition, themed “Dushi Tera,” will showcase images unique to the six islands that make up the Netherlands Antilles – Aruba, Curaçao, St. Maarten, Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius – including the architecture, nature, and panoramas. (In the Papiamento language of the inhabitants of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, “dushi tera” translates into “sweet country.”)

These photos come courtesy of the islands’ various tourism authorities as well as the Leiden University Library.

“The photo exhibition is meant to give an impression of the cultural, social and economic differences between the six islands,” Lahstein said.

Peter Sanchez, a historian from one-time Dutch colony of Suriname on the South American mainland, has been appointed curator of the photo exhibition.

“He knows a lot about the region,” said Ineke de Hoog, the embassy’s deputy head of public diplomacy and cultural affairs. “And he will be there for the opening [on Sept. 19].”

The opening will also feature culinary treats from Dutch Caribbean chefs Sherwin Alexander and Jethro Wirht, brought over by the DoubleTree hotel in Jakarta.

Alexander won a bronze medal in the seafood competition during the prestigious “Taste of the Caribbean” competition in Miami in July 2014, while Wirht was named “Chef of the Year” at the same event.

Both men will cook live at the festival’s opening at Erasmus Huis, assisted by local hospitality school students.

The menu will feature seven iconic dishes served tapas style from the Dutch Caribbean.

“The chefs have chosen the menu that gives a broad spectrum of all the different islands’ cuisines,” de Hoog said.

Among them are sopi di marisco, a traditional soup from Curaçao that contains seafood, callaloo (a vegetable native to the island), okra and fresh lemon.

Also not to be missed is the arepa di pampuna, a sweet pumpkin pancake with pickled prawns and fishcake and served with pineapple salsa.

“The cuisine is, of course, influenced by the Creoles, a fusion of the Spanish and Portuguese Antilleans,” de Hoog said. “I invite you to come and try for yourself.”

Entry to the festival is free, and the embassy expects between 500 and 700 people to turn up for the opening day.

“My impression of the Antilles Festival is something fresh and juicy, like salsa,” said Olivia Evelinda, a secretary at an accounting firm in Jakarta who said she was interested in going. “I think the festival will be very, very interesting, because we can get to know about the food and different cultures of the islands.”

Olivia also hopes to take part in the Antillean dances, such as Salsa, Merengue, Bachata and Kimboza, to be performed by Dutch Caribbean dancers on the opening day.

Orquesta Pegasaya, a popular Salsa band from the region, will also be n hand to perform live. And to fuel the guests, a round of delectable Dutch Caribbean cocktails will be served throughout the night

For more information, go to erasmushuis.nlmission.org.

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Easter Island’s Carnival Magic Seduces Tourists

Jakarta Globe, Mike Leyral, Feb 22, 2015

People take part in dance contest in Hanga Roa on Chile's Easter Island (or Rapa
 Nui as its inhabitants call it) in the Pacific Ocean on Feb. 10, 2015 as part of the 47th
 edition of Tapati, an all-out 15-day contest between rival teams to crown a new monarch.
(AFP Photo/Gregory Boissy)

Far from home on Chile’s Easter Island for Carnival festivities, one middle-aged American woman throws caution to the wind. Stripped down to a thong, she lets a local reveler paint her chest.

“If someone had told me I would end up walking down the street almost naked, I would never have believed it,” the woman, who only gave her first name Susan, said.

Susan is one of a few thousand tourists who joined the Pacific island’s 9,000 residents for Tapati, an exuberant mix of music, dance and traditional sports that takes place for two weeks every February.

In the island’s only town Hanga Roa, revelers wait in a long line under the blistering tropical summer sun to take part in a time-honored ritual — a plunge in an old tub filled with clay.

A man known as Ale then spreads with his hand this reddish-brown natural paint on the bodies of other locals — and any tourist ready to participate.

Then, other lines form in front of tubs filled with white and yellow paint.

It’s time for the Rapa Nui — the Polynesian word for both the island and its residents — to paint symbols, inspired by the local Birdman legend, or characters from the long-lost Rongorongo system of writing.

Shortly after 5:00 p.m., a warrior blows into an enormous shell, signaling the start of the nightly parade, which features colorful floats and dancers in elaborate costumes, not unlike the massive Carnival celebrations in Rio de Janeiro.

The Tapati festival is at once a test of masculine strength and feminine grace celebrating Polynesian pride.

Easter Island is at the southernmost point of the so-called Polynesian Triangle — a Pacific region with Hawaii and New Zealand at the other corners.

The Unesco World Heritage Site is famous for its nearly 900 massive stone monuments — the Moai, carved by the Rapa Nui hundreds of years ago.

Rival teams are locked in an all-out contest to crown a new Tapati queen, who reigns for a year.

Numerous races and other contests take place — including reed board surfing, underwater fishing, fruit-carrying, a triathlon and horse races — but the nightly parades and dance competitions are the highlight.

Locals spend months carving out large wooden statues for the parade floats from Eucalyptus trees representing deified ancestors, such as the mystical Moai stone giants or the Birdman.

One night, a man draped in animal skins leads the way on his motorcycle, featuring a bull’s skull on the steering wheel.

Behind him, a woman dressed as a mermaid — her costume made of all-natural materials including a tail taken from a tuna caught just that morning — poses on a float decorated with huge wooden octopuses.

People originally from the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia play large pahu drums, while the Rapa Nui prefer horse jaws that make a light sound close to maracas when the teeth hit one another.

Some of the Tapati activities reflect a more Latin vibe taken from Chile — the elderly do battle to be the accordion king, as young people display their tango skills.

But the Polynesian dance competitions are fierce.

At the Hanga Vare Vare, the main festival stage in Hanga Roa, dancers sway sensually to the Polynesian drum rhythms.

Agence France-Presse

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Solo Batik Carnival to be held in Netherlands

Tempo Interactive, Tuesday, 30 March, 2010

In glamour: A new breath into batik as designer Dewi Syifa transforms the
traditional fabric into a glamorous gown. (JP / Photos by Munarsih Sahana)

TEMPO Interactive, Surakarta: The Surakarta Cultural Office will send six members of the Solo Batik Carnival to The Hague, Netherlands, today. They have been invited by the Embassy of Indonesia in the Netherlands to perform at the Indonesia Night Market event, to be held in early April in The Hague.

“All expenses will be paid by the Foreign Ministry,” said the Head of the Surakarta Cultural Office, Purnomo Subagyo, yesterday. The costumes to be worn in the performances have the sekar jagat motif. According to Subagyo, the motif is varied and lively, appropriate for a costume party.

Similar costumes have been worn at the Chingai Festival in Singapore, last February. According to Purnomo, the six persons selected are among Solo Batik Carnival participants in Singapore. He hoped that by sending these cultural ambassadors, Surakarta’s tourism image in the Netherlands can improve. “Moreover, Indonesia is quite well known in the country,” said Purnomo.

The performers will be given travel brochures on this year’s Surakarta cultural agenda to be distributed in The Netherlands. The Indonesia Night Market is held by the Indonesian Embassy and the Indonesian community living in the Netherlands. The event will exhibit various Indonesian cultural attractions.

AHMAD RAFIQ

Pasar Malam Indonesia, The Hague

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