Organiser highly encouraged by massive turnout for RWMF 2019
Sarawak’s tourism headliner, the Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF), has proven that it is more than just a music festival.
This year’s event, which ran from July 12 to 14, recorded 23,650 festival-goers coming from all parts of the world.
The line-up featured 30 bands and over 200 performers.
From the Chilean island of Rapa Nui in the South Eastern Pacific Ocean, Ballet Folcloric De Chile Bafochi heated up the Jungle Stage with their spectacular costumes and sensual dance moves.
From the South West Pacific Ocean, Wai of New Zealand mesmerised the audience at the Theatre Stage and also during the mini sessions run throughout the three days.
There were more Sarawakian bands featured this year – five to be exact. At Adau got their legions of fans to dance along with their vibrant performance that fused ancient melodies and rhythms of different tribes, while Kemada featured traditional Iban music, games and cultural activities.
The Suku Menoa brought magic to the festival through Iban music, rituals and chants; Staak Bisomu provided their audience with a glimpse into the Bidayuh cultural heritage; and Suk Binie’s performance was an energetic mix of traditional melodies from various ethnic communities of Sarawak.
Darmas, a troupe from Peninsular Malaysia comprising six young musicians, got the crowd dancing to the rhythms of traditional Malay classics.
While the evening concerts drew in the most number of festival-goers, as they always had, this year also recorded tremendous growth in the number of participants for the afternoon activities such as the workshops as well as jamming sessions and mini concerts.
There were more than 30 mini sessions held at the Iban longhouse, Bidayuh terrace and Dewan Lagenda of Sarawak Cultural Village (SCV), the perennial hosting venue of the RWMF.
These brought together musicians from different bands where spontaneous jam sessions took place.
The Emerging Band Stage this year featured nine local bands over the course of three days, and they were equally well attended by local fans.
Side activities during the day were run in collaboration with RWMF partners including Friends of Sarawak Museum, Rainforest World Crafts Bazaar and Sarawak Biodiversity Centre.
The What About Kuching (WAK) @ RWMF make its debut this year, where artistes, artisans, poets, sports trainers, and filmmakers from the Kuching community enlivened the atmosphere at Damai Central, located right next to the SCV.
The Sunset Stage was also a key draw, gathering massive number of festival-goers who came to enjoy a medley of performances staged by local bands.
Meanwhile, RWMF organiser Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) intensified its ‘green initiatives’ this year, where the biggest impact was discouraging the use of plastic bottled water – festival-goers brought along their own bottles which they could fill with water from the many dispensing stations supplied by Cuckoo for the festival.
For its waste management strategy, STB worked with Trienekens and partnered with Spativate in coming up with eyecatching designs on waste bins, while Biji-Biji was on hand to make sure that the waste would be collected for composting.
STB also continued the tradition of tree-planting and this time, the site was at Pantai Puteri in Kampung Santubong.
Twenty two years ago, the RWMF began as a very small gathering of 300 people. Since then, it has gained worldwide recognition and won multiple awards.
For three days at least, it was easy for the festival-goers to forget that there’s a world outside the RWMF site.
The next edition of the RWMF will run from July 10 to 12, next year.