Scene & Heard : Weekend Warriors

Jakarta is gearing up to celebrate its 485th anniversary on June 22 with various festivities. Offering an interesting view into the traditional Betawi culture of Jakarta is the seventh Festival Palang Pintu (Door-bolting Festival), which will take place this weekend in Kemang, South Jakarta.

Palang Pintu is a welcome ceremony for the groom’s side in a Betawi wedding reception. During the ceremony, silat martial arts experts from the groom’s side have to triumph over the bride’s party, or else the groom theoretically must give up his marital ambitions.

The silat experts are symbolically this door bolt and the groom must be able to break through them. However, the ceremony is simply a formality in the wedding procession and the happy couple eventually gets married.

In preserving the traditional, the festival is holding a silat competition to depict the door-bolting procession. There will also be a bazaar, carnival, fun bike race, local culinary delights and more. The festival will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

For more information on the event, call Lina at 0812-8007-9048 or Joe at 0838 9336 7631, or check the website festivalpalangpintu.com.

You can also do some good for others this weekend with CrossFit For Hope, a charity initiative to help kids with cancer at Mary’s Cancer Kiddies. The event will take place on June 9 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at CrossFit Equator headquarters on Jl. Simprug Garden III/B3, South Jakarta. For more information, SMS or call coach Brian at 08176695368.

After attending the festival and the charity event, you can head to Potato Head restaurant at Pacific Place G 51 A on Jl. Jendral Sudirman Kav. 52-53 as the restaurant will hold a special event, also on June 9, titled Director’s Night, which will screen five short films made by renowned young Indonesian directors: Scent of A Passion (Nia Dinata), The Waiting Room (Joko Anwar), Dara (The Mo Brothers) as well as Hulahoop Soundings and Roller Coaster (Edwin).

The screening will start at 7:30 p.m. and is to be followed by a performance from Zeke. If you are interested in attending, contact Potato Head at 021 57973322 to reserve a seat. + Tifa Asrianti