5,000 attend inaugural ethnic festival in Labuan
LABUAN: More than 5,000 people flocked to Dataran Labuan Saturday night for the inaugural Labuan Ethnic Cultural Integration Festival 2018.
The self-funded largest and most colourful cultural festival boasted a number of highlights including seven traditional dances from seven ethnic groups on the dutyfree-island, namely Kedayan, Brunei, Bajau, Suluk, KadazanDusun, Murut and Iban.
In addition to the festival’s landscaping display component, weekend visitors and cultural performance enthusiasts also enjoyed the opportunity to watch the ethnic cultural theatre organised by the Labuan Cultural and Ethnic Welfare Association.
Music performances by local musicians rocked the main stage to warm up revellers in the square before the launch of the noisy honking from motorists to mark the Merdeka eve.
Organising chairman Asroh Sukardi said the event has drawn huge crowds since its first day on Aug 27 with almost 100 stall operators taking part in the seven-day event.
“We have not received funding from the local authorities to hold the event which is aimed at drawing visitors to the island, but, we could see people from outside of Labuan also came for this event,” he said to Bernama.
He said the event would be turned into an annual event with participation from cultural associations in the Asian region.
The event was graced opened by Labuan Corporation chief executive officer Datuk Azhar Ahmad representing the Minister of Federal Territories.
He said the event which featured the uniqueness of the ethnic traditional cultural dances were able to turn Labuan into another tourist attraction for its cultural heritage and diversity.
“Despite financial constraints and restriction from local authorities, we managed to organise it successfully, and since opening day and until today, the number of people coming to the venue is growing,” he said.
The parking lots, streets and sports field which are normally quiet became a flea market and had to be managed by the People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela) to ensure the roads are accessible.
“We can see the food operators are generating income throughout this event with several food truck operators making a beeline to offers special menu to visitors,” he said.
Meanwhile, Asroh who is also the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) Labuan pro tem chief said the event was also a recruitment platform for Bersatu to increase its membership.