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Bali kicks off month-long art festival
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Friday night officially opened the month-long 33rd Bali Art Festival, a much awaited event staging hundreds of art and culture performances
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resident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Friday night officially opened the month-long 33rd Bali Art Festival, a much awaited event staging hundreds of art and culture performances.
This year’s festival is held simultaneously with the Bali World Cultural Forum and the National Competition of Utsawa Dharma Gita (chanting of Hindu hymns).
Unmistakably Bali: Dancers perform the opera Bhisma DewaBharata at the opening of the 33rd Bali Arts Festival at the Ardhacandra Art Center in Denpasar on Friday. The month-long cultural revelry brings together 1,500 participants from 16 provinces and seven neighboring countries. JP/Zul Trio Anggon
A large musical production of Bhisma Dewabharata, an episode from the famous Hindu epic Mahabharata, was the highlight of the opening ceremony at the Ardha Candra open stage at the Art Center in Denpasar.
The play recounts the story of Bhisma, the celibate elderly warrior revered by both the Pandawas and their nemesis, the Kaura-was. Bhisma’s heart lies with the Pandawas, but in the final battle he placed his loyalty and fierce fighting skills in the service of the Kaurawas. His demise is mourned by both camps.
This running of the festival will feature hundreds of art performances — including dance, theater, music and art exhibitions — at the Art Center until July 9.
There are an estimated 15,000 Balinese artists, grouped in 334 sekaa (traditional art group) participating at the festival.
Participants from 16 provinces in Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Maluku, Sulawesi and Nusa Tenggara, as well as seven artists from the United States, India, Australia, Japan and Malaysia will take part in the art
festival.
Since its debut in 1978, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said, the Bali Arts Festival has been a “constructive forum of interaction between artists, cultural observers and the public”.
“This festival is a colorful mosaic of culture, the peak of the artists’ creativity presented in various activities. It is not only much-awaited by the Balinese people, but also by tourists,” he said.
The event is important to “maintain harmony and prevent conflicts by nurturing universal values from different cultures”.
“These values serve as social capital to build tolerance and harmony in a global and multi-cultural world.”
Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika said the festival was a strategic effort to revitalize traditional values in the midst of globalization.
This Saturday, a cultural parade will take place along two kilometers from Jl. Surapati to Jl. Hayam Wuruk in the center of Denpasar.
The parade will feature traditional cultural attractions from the island’s regencies, such as Megoak-goakan from Buleleng and Mekotekan from Badung.
The festival will not only feature art and culture performances, but will also host competitions around food, fashion, flower arrangement and handicrafts.
Organizers have deployed 1,123 security personnel to safeguard venues during the art festival.
